Bolts And Arrows
by MetalKarrotBlend
Summary: It's the end of the world, and Neil is stuck with the Dixons, the exact type of people he grew up hating, but as time moves on and he finds himself growing closer to them the apocalypse is starting to look better than the world before it. Not exactly slash, but it has potential to be.
1. Robin Hood: The Zombie Slayer

**Hey guys this is my first fanfic on here, so please leave reviews, because they really do help. Also I know there are a lot of spelling a grammar errors, but it's kind of hard to spot them on my own for the most part.**

**I own nothing except my lovely Neil and any other possible OC's I add in the future. (I wish I owned Daryl though :/)**

**Warning: Language, violence, and gore.**

**Enjoy :3**

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Neil remembered the day when the world went to hell very well. He remembered hearing the growls, snarls, and and screams coming from the world outside his small apartment which he rarely left. For the last month he had heard these reports about this disease that had ripped through the U.S. At first he brushed it off as some over exaggeration by the media, that was until he saw first hand what this disease had to offer. It happened two weeks ago, and that day would never leave his mind.

_Neil was walking home from the grocery store when an elderly woman approached him. He thought nothing of it; he figured that she was just going to ask him directions or something. He stopped and waited for the woman to get closer before asking, "Can I help you ma'am?" The woman didn't respond so Neil shrugged, turned around, and began to walk away. Then he heard that growl, that angry, hungry, guttural growl. He spun around to see where it came from and before he had time to react the old woman lunged at him and hit him surprisingly hard._

_ Neil toppled to the ground, but he maintained hold of his bag of groceries. The old woman was on top of him within a second, teeth gnashing, and drool dribbling down her chin from her mouth. Not knowing what else to do Neil pushed the woman away. She fell to the ground with a thud. Neil scrambled to his feet and looked down at the woman who was slowly getting up. Something wasn't quite right about her. Neil couldn't quite explain it, but something was definitely wrong with the old woman. The one thing he could point out was that glazed over look in her eyes. They looked empty... they looked dead._

_ The woman had finally stood back up and she was coming at him again. Before he even had a chance to think Neil brought up his hand that held the grocery bag in it and hit the woman in the head. She fell to the ground again with a growl. Before she had a chance to get up again Neil took a few steps back. What was he supposed to do? Did he call for help? Did he run? Thinking back to the news reports he remembered something, __**"Destroy the brain."**__ He shuddered at the thought. Neil had never been able to handle the sight of blood, there was no way he would be able to kill this old woman. He ran._

_Neil ran until he couldn't run anymore, and by then he was only a block from getting home. The news reports kept running through his head. Those horrible reports. _

**_"Man killed after attacking several people in the local super market. Two dead and four hospitalized. The living victims are all experiencing similar symptoms to the epidemic that has spread throughout the country."_**

**_"Woman killed after attacking her husband. The husband was gunned down by the police after becoming hostel. In the struggle the life of officer Ken Brown was lost. One other officer was injured and is currently hospitalized."_**

**_"Hospitals overflowing as dozens upon dozens of people come in suffering from an unknown disease. Government officials recommend those in affected areas stay indoors."_**

_Neil sighed and looked at the ground. What was going on? He heard about whole cities having to be quarantined because of this disease. Was Atlanta next? He couldn't help thinking about the dozens of zombie movies he had seen years ago when he was obsessed with those kinds of things. This was way too similar to those for him to look past. Maybe that's what this was, the zombie apocalypse._

_Neil briskly walked the rest of the way home. He scurried to his apartment, unlocked the door, went inside, closed the door, and locked it. There was no way he was going outside, not while this insanity going on._

Now here he was sitting on his bed forced to listen those things growing and scratching at his door as they tried to get in. Noises that could drive anyone mad. Lately he couldn't help questioning his sanity. He was alone and surrounded by monsters and the smell of death. If he came out of this sane it'd be a damn miracle. Atlanta had been over-run, he looked out his window every now and again and saw nothing but those creatures roaming the street. He was sure that he wasn't the only person left in Atlanta, but no one was nearby, that much was for sure.

He only knew that for sure because just a few days ago the military had come to Atlanta. He remembered hearing gun shots, explosions, and screaming. He didn't dare look out his window until it had all died down. Then he saw the swarms of those things roaming the street. He even saw a few people getting attacked by them and coming back as one. He felt like a coward for not helping those people, but what could he do?

Most everyone had cleared out after that, it had been days since he even saw a living person. Now only the dead walked the streets of Atlanta, and Neil had never felt more alone. He had always been pretty antisocial, but even he couldn't handle complete isolation, it was going to drive him crazy.

The scratching and groaning outside his door got louder, he was growing tired of it, so tired. His mind was tired , his body was tired, whatever remained of his soul was tired. He hadn't slept in days. Who could sleep in a world like this? That annoying growling and clawing, he couldn't take another second of it. He needed to rest or he was going to lose it.

Neil tried to sleep and block out the horrible noises every night. He'd sleep for a while, but his sleep was anything but peaceful. He was plagued by nightmares of being devoured by those terrible things and tonight wouldn't be any different.

Neil woke up in a cold sweat a he was breathing heavily_I need to get out of here. _Neil had never been one to sit still, and after weeks of being stuck in his apartment he needed out. He placed his hands over his face and tried to calm himself down. _It was just a dream. You're okay. Just a dream..._

Neil got to his feet and walked over to the only window he had. Outside he could still see a pretty decent amount of those undead freaks walking around. There was no way he would be able to go outside without getting chewed up by those things. He had seen and heard plenty of people fall victim to those monsters, and the last thing he wanted was to be one of them. He was on the first floor. He could easily climb out of the window, but he had nowhere to go, and no real way to protect himself. However if he stayed he'd end up starving to death sooner or later either that or go completely insane.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. As terrified as Neil was of those things outside he was just as terrified of losing himself in his own mind. He would rather die than go crazy, and he knew he would go crazy if he stayed in this apartment for much had to leave tomorrow. And there would be no turning back

The sun rose the next day, and so did Neil. He grabbed his most reliable backpack. It was an Eagle Creek: Grand Voyage, it was a bit worn down from years of usage, but he trusted it. This bag had gotten him all the way from Tennessee to Georgia a few months back without a single problem. Neil put everything he thought he would need into the bag: a change of clothes, some canned food, several water bottles, a sleeping bag, a canteen, a first aid kit, a few extra thing that might prove useful and the only weapon he had... a hammer. _Let's hope not to many of those things crowd me. _

Neil unlocked his window, slung his backpack over his shoulder, opened the window, and climbed out. He landed in a soft patch of grass outside his window. He was tired as all hell, he barely slept last night and his body ached for reasons he didn't know. Neil looked around to see if any of those creeps were walking around, yeah that's what he'd call them... creeps. Sounded better than zombies, if that's even what they were. Whatever they were, they were dangerous. Especially to a kid with nothing to arm himself with but a hammer, and a shitty one at that. He took the hammer from the pocket of his pack and gripped it firmly. _Here goes nothing._

Neil stepped out into the street and looked around. None of the creeps were roaming around now, but he spotted a few dead ones. The closest one was a few feet away. Neil slowly approached it to get a closer look? The thing smelled like hell, but he ignored it, he could see a small maybe 2 cm hole between it's eyes. What could've done that? A screw driver? Maybe. A drill? Didn't look like it. An arrow? Not likely, unless Robin Hood was running around in Atlanta slaying creeps. Whoever it was couldn't have been too far off, and they must have drawn most of the creeps away. Neil silently thanked whoever it was decided to continue on his way.

Neil figured he should head towards the woods, chances are there would be minimal creeps there, and hopefully some other people he could pull resources with and join. That was just being hopeful though, he was probably going to be on his own for a while. It would be best for him to start heading out of the city now before more creeps showed up. He knew he could outrun them; they weren't fast, but i f he got surrounded he's be screwed. He needed to stay in pretty open areas to keep that from happening. He knew the city well enough to stay away from any areas that could get him trapped. He just had to worry about swarms of those things coming after him. He knew there wasn't a lot of food for them, so they'd be hungry, and he was like a homemade meal to them.

The next two hours of the day were spent walking through Atlanta. As Neil walked through he spotted several more of the creeps who had been killed in the same manner as the ones he saw earlier that morning. Maybe his Robin Hood theory wasn't too far off. How funny would it be if the guy's name turned out to be Robin? Neil laughed to himself. The world had gone to shit and here he was laughing at something that wasn't even funny. _I must be going crazy._ Neil hadn't seen or talked to another person in almost a month, even if he acted like it didn't bother him it did. For all he knew everyone he had ever been in contact with was dead, and that was a scary thought. He needed to stop thinking and get moving, he could think later.

Another hour of walking, Neil needed a break. It was odd that he had yet to see any creeps actually walking around, but he couldn't be bothered to think about why that was.. He found a seemingly empty alleyway that had a fence closing it off. Neil climbed the fence and dropped to the other side. He leaned against the cool brick wall behind the shade of the building and set his hammer on the ground.

It was the middle of summer and he was sweating like a pig. Neil pushed the obsidian strands of his hair that clung to his face out of the way and sighed. He missed air conditioning already. It's amazing what you take for granted until you don't have it anymore. He wondered if the world was ever going back to normal. Sure, he world wasn't perfect before, it was anything but, but it was better than this. Anything was better than this. The dead were walking around eating the living, this was hell on earth.

He was so fucking tired. And this alley was safe, shady, and cool. He could rest here, just for a little while, then he could get moving again. He could just rest for a little while... just a little while. No point in rushing himself, he had all day after all.

Then he heard that growl. His stomach dropped.

Neil spun around to see a creep coming at him. "Shit!" Adrenaline rushed into Neil's system and he was suddenly more awake than he had been in weeks. Neil reached for his hammer, but ended up knocking it under a trashcan instead. "Fuck!" He hated how clumsy he could be sometimes.

Neil threw his backpack on and latched onto the fence, he needed to get out. Neil climbed about half way up until he felt something grab his foot. He looked down to see the creep latching onto his foot with its rotting yellow teeth surrounded by blackened gums. Neil kicked at the thing but it wouldn't let go. Despite being slow this thing was just as strong as any human man._ It used to be one..._ He needed to get rid of this thing, but his grip was slipping. Before Neil could even come up with a way to get the thing off he fell to the ground and landed on top of it.

He let out a small groan of pain then quickly got back to his feet. Neil hit the fence back first and the thing quickly latched onto him with its hands. Neil pushed it's face away as it tried to bite him all the while drooling and growling like an animal. No matter how hard he tried Neil couldn't get the damn thing off him. _  
_

_I'm not dying like this, not here, not now._

There was no way he was dying at the hands of that monster. He wasn't having it, he wouldn't let it happen. Neil took his left hand and pushed the thing back until it let go of his shirt. He then kicked it to the ground and quickly dove to the ground to get his hammer. He scrapped his elbows on the ground, but that didn't matter right now. He reached under the trashcan for his hammer. His fingers only just grazed the hammer, but he couldn't get to it. He spun around just in time to see the creep coming at him, and he was unarmed. "Shit."

Neil closed his eyes and waited for the creature to sink its teeth into him, but it didn't. It just fell there on the ground next to him. He looked at it for a moment then saw an arrow embedded in the back of its head. _So I guess good old Robin Hood is walking around._ Neil looked up to see a figure standing on the other side of the gate. It was definitely a man, but the glare of the sunlight obscured his face.

"Hey kid," He voice called out in a harsh southern drawl. "Ya best learn to watch yer back, 'less ya wanna become geek food."

So this was his Robin Hood, things were going to get interesting.


	2. Meeting The Dixons

**Hey guys this is my first fanfic on here, so please leave reviews, because they really do help. Also I know there are a lot of spelling a grammar errors, but it's kind of hard to spot them on my own for the most part.**

**I own nothing except my lovely Neil and any other possible OC's I add in the future. (I wish I owned Daryl though :/)**

**Warning: Language, violence, and gore.**

* * *

Where had this guy come from? Neil didn't notice him around earlier; he had been in this alley longer than he thought. Wherever he came from this man had saved his life, that man could've just left him to die, but he didn't. Neil was incredibly relieved that he wasn't being eaten right now, or even worse one of those things. He'd rather die than end up being one of those monsters.

Now that the adrenaline rush had left his body Neil could feel his injuries. His head was throbbing where it had hit the ground earlier and so was his back. His elbows and forearms were scraped and a bit bloody. There was no major damage, just a few injuries not unlike those a kid might get on a playground. He couldn't say the same for the corpse next to him.

"Ya even alive down there kid?" The man called.

"I uh- I..." Neil didn't know why, but he was fumbling over his words. He figured was just shaken up from almost getting eaten. Even a bit litterally shaken. After all who wouldn't be? Getting eaten had to be one of the worse ways to die.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm... I'm fine." Neil got to his feet and pushed his hair out of his face. _I should've cut my hair before I took off. This shit is going to get annoying. _Neil had always kept his hair pretty long, normally at least shoulder length, but right now it was almost down to his waist. It had never been a real problem before, but with those creeps running around he could easily get it caught in something and end up dead.

"Ya even hear a word I said?" The man said, now sounding a little impatient. Neil turned to look at the man, and what he saw wasn't quite what he expected. Before him stood a man who looked just shy of six feet tall with a mess of light brown hair sitting on his head. The man glared at him with deep blue eyes that seemed like they were always set that way. The shirt the man wore along with the vest over it were both sleeveless, so they showed off his very muscular arms. And what he held in his hands was by far the most interesting thing about him, a crossbow. _Okay, not exactly Robin Hood._

"Are ya fuckin' deaf or what?" The man shouted.

"Sorry, what?" Neil didn't normally space out like this. What was his problem today?

"I said get me that damn bolt from the geek's head."

Neil looked at the dead thing on the floor. "What'd you call it?" Neil asked as he took a grip on the arrow and ripped it from its skull. Blood splattered about and some of it landed on Neil's face. Neil took a deep breath as his stomach began to roll. He wasn't going to throw up, no way. He took a few more deep breaths before he tasted the bile rise to the back of him throat. "Shit..." Neil leaned over and the contents of his stomach spilled onto the floor. For the next few minutes Neil stood there throwing up until there was nothing left to throw up.

"I called it a geek." The man responded. "Ya know, like a carnival geek."

Neil coughed a wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his shirt. "I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about." Neil walked over to the gate and handed the arrow to the man who took it without a word. He then looked at Neil for a long moment, seeming to be analyzing him. Neil wasn't really sure what to do, but the man's gaze was making him uncomfortable. His gaze was so cool and calculating, like a predator sizing up its prey. The man finally looked away from Neil and down at his arrow, and Neil released the breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Geeks are the freaks at old carnivals." The man said while he cleaned off the arrow with a red handkerchief that he pulled from his back pocket. "They'd eat fucking everything, sometimes they'd bite off a live chicken's head."

"That's fucking disgusting." Neil muttered. "Why would you want to do that?"

"What, never eaten a chicken before?" The man scoffed.

"Not while it's alive." Neil was glad he had already thrown up otherwise he might've done it again by now. He hated the sight of blood more than anything else, even thinking about it could make him feel sick.

"What are ya doing out here by yourself kid? Got a death wish?"

"You're out here by yourself too."

"I can protect myself, and I ain't out here alone... and I ain't no kid."

"So there are other people out there?"

"One, my brother Merle. There might be more, but I haven't seen 'em."

"So you took out all of those... geeks?" Neil figured he may as will adopted the term.

"Took out a few of them. Still a bunch runnin' 'round here." The man turned around and began to walk away. "Ya comin' or what? I don't have all day to be waiting for ya kid."

The man wanted him to go with him? Neil didn't know this guy, and he certainly didn't trust him. But he didn't have a lot of other choices. He was fairly sure that he couldn't get out of Atlanta alone. This guy was his best chance at getting out alive. He was going to have to stick with him for now.

"Uh, yeah." Neil grabbed onto the fence pulled himself up and climbed over it. He landed on the ground behind the man. "I didn't catch your name man."

"Daryl Dixon. Yers?" Daryl stopped and looked back at Neil.

"Neil."

"How old are you?"

"Sixteen..."

"Where the hell are yer parents kid?"

"What's it to you?"

"Nothin' but a question. But ya best watch how ya talk to me boy, unless ya want one of these bolts up yer ass." Daryl pointed the arrow he had cleaned at Neil.

"Whatever you say, you're the one in charge."

"I ain't in charge of shit, but I am the one who saved yer ass. Ya best keep that in mind."

"Trust me, I won't be forgetting that any time soon, not unless I end up saving yours."

Daryl scoffed and muttered something. He then resumed walking, Neil followed.

"Where were ya heading anyway kid?" Daryl asked.

"Nowhere in particular, just out of the city, this place is crawling with those things."

"Did ya really think ya could do that alone?"

"I didn't really have another choice."

"Yer lucky I happened to see ya when I did kid."

"Yeah, I know. Where are we going?"

"We're gonna go find Merle then get outta this god forsaken town."

They silently walked a few city blocks until they ran into a group of about 6 geeks. Daryl stood still and slowly brought up his crossbow. Daryl, with surprising speed and accuracy dispatched each of them an arrow in every head. Neil couldn't help thinking back to his Robin Hood theory. This guy had expert aim, all he needed was merry men and to steal from the rich to give to the poor.

"That was amazing!" Neil said.

Daryl rolled his eyes and collected the arrows from the heads of the geeks. "Let's go."

The two of them walked until they came to a red truck with a black motorcycle leaning on it.

"This your truck?" Neil asked.

Daryl nodded. "Merle!" He called. "Get yer dumb ass over here."

No one responded. Neil looked around to see if anyone was around, but no one was in sight. Even if Neil did see someone he wouldn't know if it was Merle or not.. "You don't think the geeks-"

"Merle can handle a few geeks. 'sides, no way in hell Merle would leave without his bike. Merle! Where the hell are ya?!"

"I'm right here Darlene, don't get yer panties in a bunch." From around the corner came a bear of a man. This guy was huge, over six-foot and covered in muscle. The man had an air about him that made Daryl seem like Mr. Nice guy. Everything about this guy came off as threatening and when his eyes landed on Neil he damn near pissed himself. If looks could kill every geek in Atlanta would be on the ground already.

"Who the fuck are you?" Merle asked, he made the simple question sound like the answer decided whether or not Neil would live.

"Kid's name is Neil." Daryl said as he approached his brother.

"What's he doing here Daryl?"

"Found him on his own and-"

"We ain't dragging some kid around Daryl." Merle pushed past Daryl and walked up to Neil. "Listen here boy, ya better beat it before any of them walkers show up, 'cause yer not comin' with us."

"Merle-"

"Shut yer mouth Daryl! Ain't nobody care about what you gotta say. Now shut it."

Neil looked at Daryl who simply shook his head. Neil looked up at Merle. "Listen man. I don't have anywhere else to go-"

"Not my problem."

"What if I can offer you something in exchange for you letting me stay with you guys?"

"Depends on what you got kid." Merle crossed his arms and eyed Neil with that same look Daryl had given him earlier, but Neil felt a lot more like prey in Merle's presence.

Neil took off his bag and opened one of the smaller pockets, he had been saving this for himself, but it would probably be better used here. He took the small baggie and handed it to Merle whose eyebrows raised in intrigue.

"Alright." Merle scoffed. "Ya can stay kid, at least for now."

Neil hoped he could trust these people, because they were his only chance of getting out of Atlanta alive.


	3. Driving Lessons

**Hey guys this is my first fanfic on here, so please leave reviews, because they really do help. Also I know there are a lot of spelling a grammar errors, but it's kind of hard to spot them on my own for the most part.**

**I own nothing except my lovely Neil and any other possible OC's I add in the future. (I wish I owned Daryl though :/)**

**Warning: Language, violence, and gore**.

* * *

Neil tossed his bag into the flatbed of the truck and sighed. What was he doing? Running off with two complete strangers. Maybe he really was going crazy. For all he knew these guys could be murderers or rapists. Sure Daryl had saved his life, but he knew better than to completely trust him right away. He would stick with the Dixon brothers for the time being, but if things got bad he wouldn't hesitate to leave for a second. Daryl seemed like a good guy, Merle on the other hand...

Maybe Merle would be more kind once he got to know him, but Neil knew that probably wasn't true. Merle was just something he'd have to put up with. He didn't really blame Merle for not wanting him around though, Neil wouldn't really be helpful in any situation. Daryl had his crossbow and Merle had a gun; Neil didn't have any way to defend himself. He was just going to be a burden to the brothers, yet they still let him go along. Although Merle only let him come because he bribed him.

Merle revved up his obnoxiously loud motorcycle. That man was a guaranteed show off, he looked to be about 50, but he acted more like a 20-something year old. That motorcycle was made to be shown off and Merle knew that. This man always had to make his presence known, and that motorcycle made sure everyone knew Merle was coming through, including the geeks.

"Let's get goin' Daryl!" Merle shouted. "We ain't got all day."

"Shut yer damn mouth Merle, do ya wanna bring every geek within a mile to us?" Daryl retorted.

"Who the hell do ya think yer talking to like that?"

"Yer stupid ass, now shut the hell up."

While the brothers argued Neil climbed into the passenger seat of Daryl's truck. The truck seemed pretty old, but also well taken care of. The inside was pretty worn, but in a way that gave it that good old feel of southern comfort. Neil had grown up with a million and one rednecks who owned old beat-up trucks, but this one was different somehow. It had that feeling of home to it. Neil truly felt he could relax in this. Maybe he could sleep while they drove, he needed to sleep so badly.

"Ya ready to go kid?" Daryl asked as he climbed into the truck.

"I've been ready since Merle started his bitching." Neil replied.

"Ya better not let Merle catch ya talking about him like that. He wouldn't hesitate for a second to snap that skinny neck of yers."

"If you say so. Are we leaving now?"

"As soon as ya put on yer seatbelt. "

Neil scoffed. "You've gotta be kidding me. These things take more lives than they save."

"That's bullshit, now put the damn thing on or get out."

"Okay... Mom." Neil put on the seatbelt and leaned back in his seat.

"What'd I tell ya about watching yer mouth boy?"

"Yeah, I know. Arrow. Ass. You can drive now."

"They're bolts, not arrows kid."

"What's the difference?"

"A crossbow doesn't fire arrows. An' arrows are bigger than bolts."

"But they're pretty much the same thing."

Daryl muttered something and started up the truck. The engine let out a soft purr as the truck started up."Okay, let's go Merle." Daryl called out of the window.

Daryl drove the truck around the corner and down the road. Neil looked out the window to see Merle driving alongside the truck on his motorcycle. He thought about the argument the brothers had earlier. Daryl had scolded Merle for being too loud, the motorcycle was bound to attract walkers if a person's voice was loud enough.

Neil also noted the lack of walkers on their drive. They passed maybe 20 during the ride, which was odd. It had been bothering Neil all day. Neil knew there were way more walkers in Atlanta, he figured they had moved to another food source. He felt bad for whoever that food source happened to be. There were thousands of walkers in this city, most of them being in one place couldn't be good.

They drove for what Neil guessed was about an hour until they ran into what Neil decided to call an undead end. His sense of humor always picked the worse times to perk up. Th entire road ahead of them was practically full of walkers. "Oh my god..." Neil had never seen so many of them up close before. It was terrifying. Like he thought earlier, most of the walkers in Atlanta in one place couldn't be a good thing.

"Shit." Daryl growled. "Merle!" He shouted out the window. "Get in the back of the truck, now!"

Neil watched as Merle climbed off his bike, picked the thing up and tossed it into the back of the truck, then climbed in after it. He looked at the walkers and they were slowly approaching.

"Do ya know how to drive kid?" Daryl asked urgently.

"No, I never-"

"Well, yer learning now. Listen, because I'm only telling ya once. Yer gonna drive this truck through that swarm and straight forward until ya hit the highway, then ya stop, unless I tell ya otherwise. And ya best not smash up my truck boy. Now get in that driver's seat."

Daryl hopped out of the car and Neil climbed over into the driver's seat_I have no idea what I'm doing._Neil didn't know how to work the shifts or anything, so he left those alone, put his hands on the wheel and put his foot on what he hoped was the gas pedal. The truck went forward at a speed the shocked Neil. His knee-jerk reaction was to slam his foot down on the brakes. Neil heard two loud thumps, against the back window of the truck.

"I'm gonna kill that boy Daryl." Merle snapped."Drive the damn truck boy!"

Neil once again put his foot on the gas pedal and the truck raced forward. Neil didn't really know how to dive, all he knew were steering, gas, and brakes. Hopefully that would be enough. Neil looked forward and noticed that he was running over countless walkers. He quickly glanced up at the rearview mirror and saw the Dixon brothers were both shooting down walkers that were latching onto the truck. Neil pressed a little harder on the gas pedal and the truck sped were blood and guts everywhere, and it was kind of amazing. It wasn't bothering Neil, and he didn't care why right now.

Neil couldn't help but smile; this was pretty awesome. He had always thought this kind of stuff was awesome in the movies, but in real life it was practically orgasmic. He knew he shouldn't be enjoying this, but he was. Neil made the final push and the truck kicked into full truck zoomed forward past the rest of the walkers and toward the highway. Neil let out a victory shout and continued forward until he hit the highway. He still didn't have the whole driving thing down and slammed down on the heard more one thump on the back of the truck and another on the top.

"Who the hell taught ya to drive?" Merle shouted angrily from he back of the truck. That meant Daryl hit the roof.

"Nobody." Neil called back."You're lucky I didn't crash into anything." Neil turned when he heard a thump on the hood of the truck. What he saw was Daryl rolling off the hood and onto the ground. Neil got out of the truck and walked out to the front to check on the man. Daryl was laying on the ground looking at the sky. He looked pretty amused.

"Are you okay?" Neil asked

"Yeah. Just gotta remember not to ever let ya drive again. Worse damn driver I've ever seen." The man scoffed.

"I told you I didn't know how to drive." Neil offered a hand to the man, but he rejected it and stood up on his own.

"Ya okay baby brother?" Merle asked.

"I'm fine Merle." Daryl replied.

Merle hopped out from the back of the truck and walked up next to Neil. "Ya better not let this kid drive anymore."

"Trust me, I won't." Daryl muttered something to himself. "Let's getting moving again so the geeks don't catch up."

Merle headed back to get his motorcycle and Neil and Daryl climbed back into the truck. Neil put his seat belt on so he wouldn't have to argue with Daryl again. "Where are we going exactly?" Neil asked.

"Up the highway and to the mountains, specifically the woods."

"Why there?"

"Good place for hunting. Gonna need to hunt if you wanna eat kid." Daryl started up the truck and began to drive down the highway.

So Daryl was a hunter. Somehow that wasn't surprising. Most hunters Neil knew used guns, but a bow wasn't unheard of. He figured Merle probably knew how to hunt as well. Neil was lucky to find two people could hunt. Not exactly a rare find a Georgia, but still a good one.

They drove silently for at least an hour, Neil didn't mind, he always enjoyed watching the scenery on a long drive. He had never been in the mountains of Georgia before, they were probably nice. Despite the world falling apart Neil could still find some beauty in it.. Nature was unscathed by the world of men collapsing. The wind still blew the same, the tides rose like they should, trees still grew, and the sun still set.

"Ya never did tell me what happened to yer parents kid."

"That's because it's none of your business Daryl. I haven't known you half a day, don't go thinking I'm trusting you with my personal business."

"So I'm guessing we won't need to go back for 'em." The man said it like he was talking about going shopping, not human beings.

"No, no we won't." After all, what's the point in going back for dead people?

Neil still wasn't sure if he liked Daryl or not. The man was definitely looking out for Neil, but that same thing made him dislike Daryl. He had Neil's best interest in mind, but he was treating him like a little kid. Like that whole seat belt thing, really? He was 16, not 5 and Daryl was in no place to be parenting him. Or maybe he was, Neil wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for Daryl. This man , who a day ago didn't even know Neil existed, had saved his life and put his in Neil's hands along with his brother's.

Okay, maybe he wasn't totally treating him like a kid, after all the man let him drive his truck. Why was Daryl even tolerating him? He seemed like a quiet no-nonsense kind of guy, yet he put up with Neil's bullshit. He could've just agreed with Merle and left Neil alone in the city. This man didn't owe him anything, but he was still looking out for him. Neil wanted to trust that Daryl was a genuinely good guy, but he couldn't allow himself to do that especially this soon. Neil didn't currently have a reason to not trust Daryl, but the way he grew up it was best to start out with low expectations for people so he wouldn't be disappointed or hurt. With most people this wasn't an issue for Neil, but sometimes he would meet someone who he really thought was a good person. He was normally right, but that didn't keep his doubts at bay. He'd probably trust Daryl eventually, Merle he wasn't so sure about.

Merle seemed like a real asshole, he didn't just think that because of how he treated him, but even the way Daryl acted towards him proved to be evidence. He could tell the brothers didn't exactly get along, but they still stuck together. Not only that, but Neil knew Merle was a druggie. He took the drugs Neil gave him earlier. Neil didn't really care what people did with their bodies, but drugs can make a real ass out of a person. Maybe that was Merle's problem. He'd run out of drugs eventually, Neil would have to wait until then to see. You really never can tell with Merle Dixon.


	4. Another One Of Those Days

Neil woke up to the sound of a gun shot. He got up with a jolt, but something forced him back. Where was he? What was going on? Neil's heart was pounding and his mind was racing. Neil looked around to see he was inside a truck... Daryl's truck. He must have fallen asleep on the ride. But what about that gunshot?

Neil unbuckled the seat belt which had prevented him from moving earlier and got out of the truck. He carefully closed the truck door and looked around. It was dark out now, he must have been out for a while, because the sun was still up high when they were on the highway before he fell asleep. He stood in a small clearing surrounded by trees.

Neil took in the smell of the woods, it smelled like earth, soil, plant life, and generally clean. He had grown up on these smells. When Neil was younger he had been taken on hunting and camping trips many times. He had even learned how to fire a gun, but he never shot any animals, just practice targets and beers was actually a pretty decent shot, at least he was back then. Neil hadn't touched a gun in years, not since-

Neil was snapped out of his thoughts by another gunshot. It wasn't too far off, Neil was trying to decide whether he should get closer to the noise when Merle emerged from the trees in front of him.

"Ah, so ya finally woke up huh?" Merle asked with an inflection could've either been joking or threatening. He honestly couldn't tell with Merle.

"Yeah." Neil replied, not knowing what else to say to the man. Neil was terrified of Merle, but he wasn't going to give the man the satisfaction of knowing that. He could tell Merle probably got his kicks out of messing with people because he knew no one in their right mind would ever fight back. "What were those gun shots?"

"Jus' me takin' out a few of them biters." Merle said like it was nothing. Those used to be people, living breathing people. How could you kill them and feel nothing? Then again, with the looks of Merle Neil wouldn't be surprised if that man had killed an actual living breathing person before.

"Where's Daryl at?" The younger Dixon brother was nowhere in sight.

"He's getting used to the area, he'll be back by morning."

Neil simply nodded in response to Merle and looked away from the man to avoid that soul piercing stare of his. Neil swore that man was debating getting rid of Neil with that gun he was holding. He could do it too, he wouldn't have to worry about going to jail, he'd just have to deal with an angry Daryl, which Neil was sure he could handle.

"So kid," Merle said, breaking the silence. "Daryl tells me ya almost got yourself killed back in the city."

Was Merle trying to make small talk? "Yeah, I ran into a walker and couldn't protect myself. I was lucky to be where I was when I was or I'd be one of those things right now.

"Damn right ya would be, ya best remember that while yer here too."

"I don't have any plans to forget Merle. I know your brother saved my life, and I'm grateful as all hell. Even more so that you two didn't leave me back in Atlanta."

Merle raised an eyebrow at Neil. "Wasn't yer plan to go by yourself in the first place?"

"I was in way over my head. I would've been better off staying at home and starving to death. Just got lucky, I guess."

"They don't get much more lucky than ya are kid, but that luck of yers will wear off real quick if you don't keep in line."

"I never had plans to do anything but Merle." Neil instantly regretted the sarcasm he threw into that sentence.

"Listen here ya little shit. Daryl might tolerate that smart mouth of yers, but I catch ya talking to me like that again and that mouth of yers won't be moving so good afterwards."

Neil felt pretty threatened, but he wasn't backing down to this man. "You might as well bust my mouth now then, because half of what I say comes out before I think it."

Merle fixed that predatory stare on Neil again. Neil had no idea what this man was going to do. He really wouldn't be surprised if Merle did bust his face in right then and there. But he didn't do that, he just laughed. "Well damn kid. It's not half as fun if ya want me to do it."

"I don't want you to do it, but if it's unavoidable there ain't really a lot I can do about it."

"I'll let ya off the hook this time, but ya better work on that mouth of yers or I will follow through with that promise of mine."

"Yes sir."

"Don't be calling me sir."

"Okay... I'm gonna go get my bag and..." Neil didn't finish his sentence, he just walked away from the awkward situation. That man was crazy and clearly high as a kite right now. Neil didn't need to be dealing with that right now. He had a few druggie friend in the past, he had even tried drugs in the past... well not tired. He was in pretty deep, but he managed to get out of the early grave he had nearly sealed. Neil reached into the flatbed of the truck and pull out his bag. He didn't really have a reason to pull the thing out, but it was an excuse to get away from Merle. The amounts of uncomfortable Merle made him was unreal. He'd just have to wait for Daryl to get back to feel less uncomfortable.

"Wake up kid." Neil woke up to a light kick in the ribs from Merle. Light for Merle that is.

"Whadayawant?" Neil muttered. "I'm trying to sleep here... 's not even light out yet."

"We don't have time for yer sleeping boy."

Neil sat up and rubbed his eyes. The one night he was actually going to get a good night's sleep... "Why, what's going on?"

"Ain't nothing goin' on, but yer learning to shoot a gun."

"I already know how, I don't need to learn." He yawned and stretched.

"If ya know how to shoot why aren't ya carrying a gun? Are ya tryin' to get yourself killed?"

"I'm not old enough to buy a gun Merle and I didn't have time to grab one."

"Who taught ya to shoot?"

"A friend."

"Ya any good at it?" Merle held out a pistol to Neil. It was pretty standard hunting pistol than hand the words "MKIII HUNTER" engraved into it. Neil had never seen this particular brand before, but it looked nice. Neil took the gun, it must have been brand new because it was smooth and more clean than any other gun Neil ever had in his hands. It had to be pretty damn expensive, easily $400 or $500.

"Let's find out." Neil replied. "Give me something to shoot at."

Merle grabbed an empty can off the ground and set it on the edge of the back part of Daryl's truck. "Ya better hope ya got good aim or Daryl is gonna kill ya."

Neil brought the gun up and took a moment to remember how to hold it properly. He lined the sights of the gun up with the can, took a deep breath, and pulled the trigger. _Boom! Clink! _Neil watched as the can fell into the flatbed of the truck. He still was a pretty good shot.

"Not bad kid." Merle said. "Gonna have to be sure to pick ya up a gun one of these days."

Neil handed the gun back to the man and shook his head. "I can't shot anything other than a can. I can't handle blood."

"Well ya better learn to, 'cause yer life is gonna be depending on it sooner or later."

* * *

It had been about a month since Neil ran into the Dixon brothers, and he had gotten pretty used to them. He was even beginning to warm up to them a bit, yes, even Merle. He still didn't know very much about the two of them other than the fact that they were 12 years apart and that they had been brought up in the mountains of Georgia. Neil didn't let anything on about himself, but he didn't really find a need to. Neil spent most of his time exploring the woods around them and trying to learn his surroundings. The brothers said they might teach him about hunting some time, and frankly it sounded useful. He just didn't know if is stomach could handle it. Daryl tried showing him how to skin squirrel about a week ago, and as expected Neil threw up. It had also been about a month since he'd taken a shower. He'd been about to wash up in the stream a little bit away from camp, but it wasn't exactly the same.

Neil crawled out of his sleeping bag with a groan. Today was just going to be one of those days. Daryl had been gone hunting since yesterday morning, and Merle had been giving him these unsettling looks ever since Daryl had left. Neil didn't really know what to make of it. He hadn't done anything to anger Merle... well not recently. Maybe he was just in a bad mood, Neil knew he wasn't out of drugs, maybe those were just getting to him again. Drugs could make people pretty irritable depending on what you were taking. Whatever it was Neil was going to stay away from Merle until it was over. As of now he needed to take a piss.

Neil walked over to a tree not far from where he was sleeping, unzipped his pants, and took care of his business. Neil was about to zip up when heard footstep behind him. He turned his head to see Merle walking towards him. Neil zipped up, turned around, and looked at Merle. "Morning." He said.

Merle didn't respond, but just kept walking towards him. Neil backed up as Merle slowly came towards him until his back hit the tree. Merle kept staring at him without a word. Neil was pretty nervous right now. He didn't know what Merle was planning on doing, but chances are it was nothing good. "What do you want Merle?"

Merle scoffed and smile spread across his face. "Ya know how long we've been out here kid?"

"About a month I guess. Give or take a few days."

"Yeah, ever since the world fell apart I've been missing out on a lot of pretty good things."

Neil looked away from Merle as he got more and more nervous he could feel his face flushing. "What's not to miss? A roof over your head, showers, a bed... things were pretty nice."

"Ya know what I miss more than all that?"

"I..." Neil froze as he realized what Merle was talking about. "Look man, I don't- I mean if you... I uh... Look I get that that's sort of a thing you need, but I'm not.. well you know."

Merle brought his face close to Neil's and glared at him. "I ain't no fag boy, but a man has needs. And with that long hair of yers I can use my imagination."

Neil didn't really know what to do or say. He knew he couldn't change Merle's mind, when that man wanted something, he got it . And here was no way he could overpower Merle. That man was easily 250 lbs, and Neil was only about 150, if that. This was just going to be one of those days...

"Now how about ya turn around so we can play pretend?"

"Am I interrupting somethin'?" It was Daryl. He stood there with his arms crossed, eyes digging into the back of his brother's skull.

Merle muttered something to himself and turned around. "Nah, just having a little chat with the kid." Merle walked away without another word leaving Neil standing there awkwardly.

"Um... hey." Neil said, not looking at Daryl, but rather at the ground. What was he supposed to say in this situation?

Daryl looked back at Merle for a moment, then back to Neil. "Ya alright kid?"

Neil nodded. Overall he was fine, a bit shaken up, but he hadn't been hurt. "I'm fine."

"Come with me for a second." Daryl walked a bit into the woods and Neil followed. They stopped behind a pretty sizable tree. Daryl got down on one knee and motioned for Neil to do the same. Neil did so, but kept his eyes on the ground.

"So what are we doing out here?" Neil asked quietly.

"Listen here kid. I don't know what Merle was tryin' to pull, but if he tries it again..." Daryl pulled out a large Bowie knife from it's sheath and held it out to Neil along with the sheath. "Get him in the leg and run."

Neil scoffed. "You're kidding, right? You aren't giving me permission to stab your brother."

"Ya need to be able to protect yourself, even if it is from Merle. Now take the damn knife boy."

Neil took both items from the man and sighed. "Thank you."

"Fer what?"

"For showing up when you did." With that Neil put the knife in it's sheath, hooked the sheath onto his belt, stood up, and walked away. Today was going so great... just perfect.

That night it was squirrel for dinner again. Neil sat as far away from Merle as possible at the fire. He knew the man wouldn't try anything while Daryl was around, but he still didn't want to be near him. They ate in silence for most of the meal, that is until Daryl spoke up.

"I'm gonna have to go hunting again tomorrow. We're running low on food and I haven't been able to catch much." He gnawed on his lower lip for a moment. "The two of y'all need to try and get along while I'm gone. I ain't no babysitter, so ya better work out whatever problems yer having while I'm gone."

Merle scoffed. "I think I can manage that."

"Good." Daryl said. "I'll take watch tonight."

That night Neil lay awake for a while thinking about how today had turned out, a few minutes made it so he wasn't able to go a second without checking over his shoulder. Like he said before... today was just one of those days.

The next morning when Neil got up he went and sat by the fire pit. He didn't see Merle anywhere, so he figured that the man was still asleep. Maybe he should spend today doing a bit of adventuring so he could avoid Merle. That was probably the best choice he could make in this situation. Neil stood up to leave and turned around. There he was met with the towering figure of Merle Dixon. "Shit."

"What?" Merle asked. "Not happy to see me?"

"No." Neil answered firmly.

"What, ya still mad at me from yesterday?"

"Yes, I'm still fucking mad at you!" Neil was kind of surprised by his own outburst. "I'm going for a walk, I'll be back by sundown." Neil turned and began to walk away, but then he felt Merle's grip on his arm. He took a deep breath and turned around. "Let go of me Merle."

"Sorry, but I have some unfinished business from yesterday to take care of."

"I mean it, let go of me!" Neil tried to wretch his arm from the man's grip, but it was like iron. Neil swung his fist at the man, and instantly regretted it when he felt a blunt pain hit his cheek and he fell to the ground with ringing ears. Merle had just punched him. Neil crawled backwards a bit, but before he could get far Merle brought his up to his knees... by his hair. Neil opened his mouth in a silent cry of pain.

"Now how about ya cooperate so that doesn't have to happen again?" Merle said.

"Fuck you Merle." Neil, as quickly as he could yanked the knife from it's sheath and jabbed it right into Merle's thigh. Merle let out a cry of pain and let go of Neil's hair. Neil didn't take moment to look back, he did as he was told. He ran.

Neil dashed into the woods and ran for god knows how long. He didn't know if Merle was following him or not right now, but whether or not he was he could track Neil down like an expert. Eventually Neil had to stop for a breather. His legs and lungs were both aching like hell. He hadn't run like that since... well since ever. He knew if Merle caught him he was probably gonna gut him like a fish. Neil looked back in the direction from which he came from behind a tree, and sure enough of in the distance he could see Merle limping/running after him. It was time to get going again.

Neil turned and began to run again, but after few steps he tripped over a tree root. Neil quickly got to his feet as quickly as he could. He could hear Merle's steps were no more than 500 feet away. And he could hear the man yelling obscenities at him the entire way. Neil didn't hesitate to get the hell out of there. Neil ran a few more minutes when he realized he couldn't run forever. He needed to shake him somehow. Neil fixed his eyes ahead he could vaguely see a clearing up ahead. He could enter the clearing a hopefully find way to throw Merle off. He made a final dash for the clearing knowing he wasn't going to be going for much longer. If he made it there at least he'd have more options on where to go and maybe a place to hide. He just had to get there before Merle could catch up to him. Neil was maybe 10 feet from the clearing when he heard another voice coming from the clearing. Someone was there. Neil half ran half fell into the clearing and landed face first in a patch of green grass.

Neil groaned and looked up to see and elderly man, an Asian, and a man about Merle's size standing above him and staring. Neil slowly got to his feet and looked at the largest man. He put his hands up to show he wasn't a threat or armed. The large man walked up to Neil and scoffed. "Don't worry kid, we're not scared of you, but what are you running from? Is it a walker?"

Neil shook his head. "No, it's Merle."

"It's what?" The Asian asked, and at that same moment an angry Merle burst into the clearing.

"Him." Neil muttered as he stepped back. Today was going to be another one of those days wasn't it?


	5. Strangers

"There ya are, ya little shit." Merle growled. He was practically dripping with sweat, and Neil could see blood soaking through the fabric of his Jeans where Neil had stabbed him earlier. Neil looked away to keep his stomach from rebelling. He wished he could get over this blood thing, all it did was get in the way.

The larger man in the group walked up to Merle and blocked his path to Neil. "Are you looking to start trouble? " He asked very professional, like he had handled people like Merle before.

"I ain't looking to start nothin' with y'all. It's that little backstabbing punk I'm after." Merle snapped.

"Backstabbing?" Neil repeated angrily. "You attacked me first, asshole."

"Excuse me." The elderly man interjected. "But do the two of you know each other?"

"Sadly yes." Neil answered.

"So what's the problem exactly? " The man standing between Neil and Merle asked.

"The little fucker stabbed me in the leg." Merle shouted.

"You started it Merle." Neil replied. "And I only stabbed you because Daryl told me to."

"He what?"

"Told me if you tried to do anything again I should stab you in the leg and run."

"Wait, wait, wait." The young Asian said. "Who's Daryl? "

"My brother." Merle replied. "But that's none of yer damn business. I've been watching the boy with my brother and that's what I'm going to keep doin'. Now how about ya get outta my way?"

"I think you should go." The large man said. "Merle was it?"

"Alright." Merle shrugged. "Come on bug, we're leaving. "

Neil hated it when Merle called him that.

"No, the kid's staying here."

"What?" Everyone said at once.

"Kid I can't let you run off with that man if it's not safe."

"With all due respect," Neil said. "Who the hell are you to be telling me where I can and can't go?"

"I'm police officer Shane Walsh. It's my job."

"**Was **your job. Incase you didn't notice, the world ended. You might be in charge of your llittle group or whatever this is, but you have no authority over me."

"Nice kid you got there." Shane said to Merle.

"He ain't mine." Merle said. "Daryl and I have just been takin' care of him."

Shane nodded. "How about this? You get your brother and maybe we can work out some kind of agrement. Maybe the three of you can join our group. It is just the three of you right?"

"Yeah." Merle replied. "Fine, y'all can keep the kid for now, but we're coming back." Merle shot Neil one last look then he turned and limped away, head still head high. Those Dixons were a tough bunch.

Once Merle was out of sight Shane turned to Neil. "So kid, what's your name?"

"Neil."

Shane nodded. "So, what are you doing with that asshole exactly? "

"Staying alive. Merle and Daryl are the only reason I'm alive right now, so I stuck with them. And they aren't that bad, Merle's just having a little SBU right now, so he's a little on edge. Daryl is a little rough around the edges, but he just doesn't like dealing with other people's drama. They aren't the nicest people in the world, but they're not all bad."

"Do you want to go back with them?"

"I'm sticking with them no matter what. I owe both of them a lot. And despite today's events I trust both of them more than I do you... officer. "

"Are you sure that's the best choice? "

"No, but it's the choice I'm making. Making the best choice would require me making the smart choice, and that's not really my thing."

With that Shane simply shook his head and walked off.

"My name's Glenn." The young Asian said, he looked to be in his early 20's. "Pleasure to meet you."

Neil didn't really know what to say, so he ended up just staring at Glenn blankly for a few moment s. Why was this guy so cheery right now? The world was ending, and he acted like this was just another day of the week. "Uh, you too."

"Want me to show you around the camp?" Glenn asked.

"Um... I-"

"Now Glenn," The old man said, "you might be overloading the boy. Why don't you give him some time to rest. He looks pretty tired." The man walked over to Neil, "Are there any injuries you need me to look at son?"

Neil wasn't sure if anything needed anything looked at. The adrenaline still hadn't left his system, and was left standing there feeling numb with his heart practically jumping out of his chest. His head was spinning though, Merle had knocked him pretty hard earlier, maybe he had a concussion. "I... I think I need to sit down for a minute. "

"Alright, follow me son." The old man walked around the large RV Neil had only just noticed. On the other side were several tents and Neil could see a few people standing around. He noticed a thin African-American woman chatting with a small blonde woman. A tall woman with long hair who was speaking to Shane, and a little boy and girl scurrying about. There were more tents than people, so Neil figured the others were someplace else.

The man led Neil to a chair right out front of the RV. "Go ahead and sit down."

Neil nodded and took the seat. He was relieved to finally rest his legs. A sigh slipped from his lips and he threw his head back. "Thanks." Neil muttered to the elderly man.

"Not a problem, just trying to be helpful. I'm Dale by the way."

Neil nodded. As his body was finally calming down he could feel bruises and other injuries that were probably already beginning to show, the most notable one was the throbbing of his left cheek where Merle had punched him earlier. That man had hit him pretty damn hard, not only had he knocked him on his ass, but he nearly knocked him out. Neil was lucky he hadn't otherwise things would have been going very differently right now.

"You alright son?"

"I think so, a bit scratched up, but nothing to worry about. Merle only hit me once. The man has an iron grip though."Neil examined where Merle had grabbed him earlier, there was a bluish purple bruise forming there. Oh great.

"I'll leave you be for a while, but don't be afraid to ask if you need anything. "

Neil nodded a closed his eyes. He didn't know these people, but he felt safe. Maybe he'd take a nap until Merle came back with his brother. He didn't have much else to do in the mean time, so a nap seemed nice. Neil sat there for a while and soon began to drift off, but of course something interrupted him.

"Who are you?" Neil opened one eye to see a little brown haired boy who looked about 12.

"Who wants to know?" Neil asked rather than answering.

"My name's Carl. Carl Grimes."

"My names Neil."

"What's your last name?"

Neil smirked. "I don't have one."

"You can't not have one."

"Oh, I guess you're right about that."

"Well, what is it?"

"Not important. Why don't you go play kid?"

"I'm not a kid." Carl protested.

"How old are you?"

"I'm 12, almost 13."

"Like I said, you're a kid. Go play with your little girlfriend."

"Ew, she's not my girlfriend."

Neil scoffed. "Ew?"

"Yeah, all that kissing stuff is gross."

"Give it a year or two. You won't be thinking the same way."

"Carl what are you doing? " The woman who had been talking to Shane walked up behind Carl.

"Nothing mom, just talking."

"Why don't you go play Carl?"

"But mom!"

"Go." She put her hands on her hips and with that Carl walked off. But after Carl was gone the woman still stood there.

"Do you need something ma'am? " Neil was already getting sick of these people.

"I want you to stay away from Carl."

Neil groaned, couldn't this wait? "Okay, but why, if you don't mind my asking?"

"I don't trust you around my son."

"Good. Maybe he won't bother me anymore. Tell him I'm a murderer or something."

The woman glared at Neil.

"Do you need something else?"

"No." The woman walked away with a huff.

"Bitch." Neil mumbled to himself. He didn't have the patience for these people. At least the Dixons weren't constantly bothering him. They gave him his space and he gave them theirs. However these people hadn't left him alone since he got there. Neil was starting to remember why he stayed away from people most of the time. People were annoying.

But now Neil was alone and could relax. Nobody else had any reason to bother him, now he could just rest until the Dixons got back, whenever that would be. They were coming back right? Realistically they didn't have to, he was pretty safe here. They didn't have to look out for him anymore. Maybe it would be better if he stayed here. Neil would have to think on it for a while longer. But once again his thoughts were interrupted by a loud gunshot.

_Here we go again._

Neil jumped out of the chair and ran in the direction of the gunshot. It was behind the RV. Merle must be back. Neil walked out behind the RV to see Merle, Daryl, and Shane all standing together, but not peacefully. Daryl had his crossbow pointed at Shane who had his gun trained on Merle. Neil backed up so not to be seen. He wondered where the gunshot had gone, none of the men had been shot, and there were no walkers around.

"Alright, " said Shane, "how are we gonna do this?"

"Yer gonna stop pointing that damn at my brother's head for one." Daryl growled.

"I will as soon as you set down that crossbow. "

Daryl glared at Shane for a moment then reluctantly set his crossbow on the ground. As promised Shane lowered his gun.

"So, what is it you want exactly? " Daryl asked.

"I want to take the boy off your hands." Daryl raised an eyebrow at this. "After today I'm pretty sure he's not safe staying with the two of you."

"What do ya need to ask us for? It's the kid's choice, he can run off if he wants to."

"But he won't, he said he's staying with you."

"That's his choice. I'm not going to make him change his mind. Ya want it done, do it yourself. I'm not getting involved in this bullshit."

"Would you consider staying here? There's plenty of room, and we could use the extra help."

"I don't know. What do ya think Merle?"

"It don't really matter. Nothing to lose or gain either way. I'd rather not be around this asshole."

Daryl looked thoughtful for a moment. "Give us tonight to figure it out."

* * *

**Kinda short chapter, and I'm gonna be busy all weekend. Walking Dead on Sunday though! Can't wait.**


	6. Forget To Remember

Neil went back around to the other side of the RV. What were the brothers going to do? And what was that gunshot about? He really hoped they hadn't noticed him, otherwise-

"What's going on over there?" Neil turned to see a stout African-American rushing up the RV with a pistol.

"It's nothing." Shane said as he walked out from behind the RV, and he was followed by the Dixon brothers.

"Who are they?" Carl asked. "Are they staying here?"

More and more people started to crowd around asking questions. Neil began to feel a bit crowded and backed away from the people who were getting too close. He was starting to feel claustrophobic. How many people were at this damn camp? It was all getting so loud and disorganized. He couldn't handle this, he needed to move away from this.

"Everyone quiet down!" Shane shouted, his voice rose above all the others and the group began to calm down. "Listen, these two aren't causing any trouble... now." He looked at Merle then back at the group. "They just came to get their..." He seemed a bit hesitant to say the next word, "kid. And they'll be back tomorrow, maybe permanently."

"We can't just be bringing new people into the group Shane." Said Carl's mother. "You don't even know these people."

"Lori, we were all new people to this group at one time or another, and there's no reason not to trust these people." Neil knew Shane wasn't being totally truthful to the group, but why? Why would he want the Dixons in the group? "And they could be a useful asset to the group, we all know we could use some more help around here. As of now it doesn't matter, because they're leaving until tomorrow."

"Well c'mon boy!" Merle called. Neil looked at the man. "I almost got shot coming to get yer ass, don't think I'm gonna be waiting around forever." Merle muttered something that Neil only heard snippets of, he was pretty sure he was muttering about him stabbing him. He knew he was never going to hear the end of that, and neither was Daryl. Neil walked past a few of the other people in the group and stood next to the brothers for a moment before they turned and walked into the woods.

The entire walk back to camp was silent, but Neil didn't mind. He wasn't in the mood to be yelled at nor to hear the two brothers going at each other. Neil was actually surprised Merle hadn't tried to kill him yet, after all he had stabbed the man... he had stabbed Merle Dixon and had lived to tell about it. He wouldn't be more lucky if he found a leprechaun next to a four-leaf clover and a rabbit's foot. Neil didn't know what he had done to prevent Merle from completely destroying him yet, but whatever it was he was glad he'd done it.

Once they got back to camp they remained silent, but Merle shot Neil a threatening look. Neil didn't know why but he smirked at the man. He really needed to start thinking before he did things, especially when said things involved Merle. It was beyond him that Merle hadn't beat his face in yet, Merle had punched him more than once before today, today wasn't even the first time he hit him in the face, yet had never seriously hurt Neil.

"What the fuck are ya smiling at boy?" Merle snapped as he stepped up to Neil. "D'ya think this shit is funny? Don't think I forgot what ya did earlier! I should beat yer little ass and leave you fer the walkers!"

"Well do it then..." Neil said quietly. Both of the brothers threw him curious looks.

"What?" Merle asked.

"Well if you can why haven't you done it Merle? You're obviously not afraid to knock me on my ass or attempt to fuck me! Why don't you put your money where your mouth is and do what you said you're going to? I'm not scared of you anymore Merle, so go ahead! I'm right here so take a shot at me old man!"

For the next few seconds no one spoke. Neil knew Merle was going to kick his ass, but he couldn't bring himself to care. He wasn't keeping his mouth shut to make Merle happy anymore, he had had more than enough of that. Especially after today, he was damned if he was going to listen to a damn thing Merle said.

"Are ya crazy?" Merle asked. "Who in the hell do ya think yer talking to like that?"

"You Merle. Hit me if you want to, I can take a punch."

Merle seemed genuinely confused. It must have baffled him to see someone so much smaller and weaker than him standing up to him and not backing down. Neil didn't blame him, even Daryl seemed hesitant to stand up to his brother, and Merle would never do anything to really hurt his brother. Now this kid he barely knew was telling him off with no signs of backing down.

"You must be outta yer mind." Merle walked up to Neil until they were inches away. "Ya can't actually want me to hit ya."

"Are you gonna do it or not? If you are get it out of the way now. I stabbed you and talked shit to you, you can't tell me you don't want to. I'd hit me too, so go ahead. Then we can talk about more important things without you being so pissed off."

"Merle, ya don't-" Neil didn't hear the rest of Daryl's sentence before he has hit in the stomach and fell to the ground instinctively holding his stomach. _Cover your head and don't move too much. _He knew Merle was going to kick him and he knew he needed to keep him from doing too much damage. Merle landed a few kicks on Neil's ribs each blow causing Neil to unwillingly exhale. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Merle kicked Neil in his now pretty vulnerable stomach a full four times before Daryl pushed him back.

"Are y'all fucking crazy?" Daryl shouted at his brother, holding him by the shoulders. "What do ya think yer doing beating up on a kid? Yer better than that and ya know it Merle." Merle stared at Daryl for a long while then turned around and stormed off with a few muttered curses. Daryl turned to Neil and stared down at him. "As for you... are ya out of yer god damn mind? Egging Merle on like that." He paused and shook his head. "You must have death wish."

Neil groaned and slowly sat up. "I had it coming one way or the other Daryl. I mean, I did stab him." Neil's chest hurt, that man was like a bulldozer. He shouldn't have let Merle hit him there, or at all for that matter. Maybe he was crazy.

Daryl sighed and paced back and forward for a moment. "Ya can't be starting shit like that with Merle. Yer lucky I know how to stop him, or else ya'd be a bloody mess."

"I've had worse." Neil scoffed which caused an ache in his chest. "I've seen old ladies who hit harder."

"Ya must insane. Nobody in their right mind would talk to Merle like that."

"You do it."

"Never said I was in my right mind, and he's my blood, he'd never do me any real harm. He wouldn't think twice about beating yer face in."

Neil brought himself to stand up even though it hurt like hell, he wouldn't be surprised if Merle had broken one of his ribs. No, he'd broken ribs before, this wasn't that bad. "Like I said, I had it coming. I didn't think for a second that Merle was gonna let that slide."

"Maybe you're just stupid." Daryl looked over him with a look Neil didn't really recognize. It looked almost like Daryl was disappointing, but what about?

"Well, I'll tell you this, I'm not going to tell Merle to hit me ever again. I forgot how hard that man can hit."

Daryl shook his head and walked away. "I shouldn't have to be dealing with this shit. Didn't have kids for a fucking reason."

Now Neil was alone, standing at the edge of camp. He really shouldn't have let Merle do that, he had enough bruises already. He still felt he got off easy considering what Merle had planned for him earlier that day. He'd rather have every bone in his body broken then let Merle do that. Just the thought made him sick. Neil didn't have a problem with gays, but he tried not to think about what they did in the bedroom.

Without anything else to do Neil sat down on a nearby tree stump and just tried to push all the thoughts in his head back. He needed to relax, that word had all but lost meaning to him. It had been almost 3 months since he had be able to do that. But when the world is being taken over by the undead it's hard to relax. What he wouldn't give for some music, he would kill to listen to some Tool or Pearl Jam right now to calm his nerves.

Neil recalled his childhood, even when he was as young as six and things at home got bad music always managed to calm him down at least somewhat. No, it didn't fix his problems, but at least it helped him forget for a little while. No matter how bad things got he could use music to drown out the thoughts running through his head and driving him up the wall. These days it seemed like something he needed much more than before, even though in some ways now days were better than things had been in the past.

He soon found himself humming a familiar tune and staring up at the sky. If the world wasn't how it was Neil could just spend days not moving from this spot without a care in the world. He missed those days he could spend away from the world and it's problems. As every day passed Neil came further to terms with the fact that things were never going back to normal. The rest of his life was going to be spent like this, and frankly he was beginning to care less and less how long that would be. Death was around every corner waiting to bite him and anyone else in the ass, somewhat literally.

_If you ain't got the answer _  
_If you don't know the truth _  
_If you want the power _  
_Then let it flow through _  
_Would you let it go _  
_Would let it go _  
_They cannot end this morning _  
_Of my life_

"Show me how the gods kill." Neil said quietly to himself.

"Danzig." Neil turned and looked at Merle who stood there with his arms crossed. "Aren't ya a bit young to be listening to that stuff."

Neil scoffed. "Never too young to enjoy some good music."

The two of them were silent for a little while, then Merle spoke again. "So, ya wanna go or not?"

"Go where? With those other people?"

"No, to Disney Land." Merle rolled his eyes. "Yeah with those other fucking people."

"Why are you asking me?" Neil crushed a browning leaf under his boot. "I couldn't care less. I think we're fine on our own, those people might need some help though. That guy, Shane, he obviously wanted you two to join the group. Ultimately it's up to you and Daryl. I'm sticking with you guys no matter what you decide."

Merle looked intrigued. "Why's that?"

"I owe you both a huge debt, and I'm not going anywhere until I repay it. I'll admit I don't like you much, but I owe you my life." Neil looked at the ground. "Besides, you two are the only people I even remotely trust right now. Those other people seem pretty nice, but I still don't know what to expect from any of them at the moment. Do you want to go?"

Merle shrugged. "Don't think it matters that much. Those people aren't really our problem, but if they want us to stay we might as well."

"What does Daryl want to do?" It sort of bothered Neil that they weren't talking about the events that occurred earlier, but he knew Merle wasn't going to be willing to talk about it, and Neil didn't really want to talk about it either.

Merle shrugged again. "I don't know." Merle stood there for a little while longer than silently walked away.

Later that evening Daryl returned from the woods where he had apparently gone to earlier. Neil hadn't noticed when he left, but he wasn't worried; Daryl can take care of himself. He returned with a few squirrels which was going to be dinner that evening. That evening no one spoke or even looked at each other. Today had been pretty stressful for all of them, and all of them were at least a little bit at fault. Some obviously more than others.

None of them were very happy with each other as things were, but they were all more or less okay. Neil was still pretty sore from the beating he took earlier, but he was no worse for wear. He had dealt with far worse injuries in his lifetime. Merle's leg had been bandaged up, and hopefully cleaned earlier. Daryl was virtually unharmed, but out of the three of them he seemed to be the most angry. Neil didn't blame him, after all, he was the one who had to deal with shit that really wasn't his to deal with. That whole babysitter line from last night, did he really feel like he had to babysit them? Of course he did.

Neil went to bed early that evening; he stared up at the sky for god knows how long. For a while he was able to stop thinking and just relax. For just a little while he was able to enjoy the quiet of the night and the sparkling of the starlight. These were the kind of days he missed the most. Days where he could get away from the city and be on his own for a while. It had never mattered where he went, as long as it was quiet and he hadn't always liked being alone, it used to terrify him, but at some point that changed. He didn't remember when exactly, but he had a pretty good idea. Being alone isn't really such a big deal when you don't want to be alive anymore.

_Neil was standing alone in the middle of the street. He looked around and saw no one, but he heard sirens in the distance. The street he stood in wasn't in the city, it was the country. There were almost no buildings around, and no people in sight. Something about this scene seemed so familiar. Neil turned around and looked toward s the sirens, they didn't seem to get any closer, just louder and louder. Why did he feel like he had been here before?_

_Neil ran a hand through his hair. It was cut short, when had that happened? Then it hit him, but he had to be sure. Neil hesitated then looked down at the ground. He saw a man laying there in a puddle of his own blood. His image was almost a reflection of Neil's, cool green eyes staring up into space, black hair matted to his face by the rain... Neil saw himself in this man, much more than he could be happy with. This was his father._

_Neil backed away from his father's body and shook his head. This wasn't happening, not again. He had seen his father dead once already, he didn't need this again. His heart was beating like a drum being pounded on by a preschooler and his breaths came in short gasps. A panic attack. He fell to his knees and tried to calm himself down. Why was this happening? He couldn't understand why he was seeing this again. But he didn't have time to figure out why because he heard one of those inhumane growls that he hadn't heard in over a month._

_He looked up to see his fathers corpse rising to its feet. Neil stared in horror as his fathers dead body came towards him. The corpse limped toward him, digging into him with those cold hungry eyes, and he couldn't bring himself to move at first. Finally he jumped to his feet and began to run. Neil got maybe five feet of ground before he ran into a man. "Please help!" Neil cried to the man, he didn't reply. Neil turned around to see his father coming closer, he backed into the man who in turn grabbed him by the shoulders. Neil tried to pull himself from the mans grip, but his efforts were useless. _

_"Let go of me!" Neil shouted as he squirmed in the mans grip. "I said let go!" He wasn't strong enough to get away. __Neil had to stare in horror as the corpse approached him knowing there was nothing he could do. His father now inches in front of him, Neil knew this was the end. Sharp teeth dug into the flesh of his neck and Neil let out a cry of pain._

Neil woke up to his own scream and sweat dripping down his face. He could barely breathe, his heart was pounding like it wanted to get out of his rib cage, and he was shaking like a leaf. He thought he was done with the nightmares; he hadn't had one in almost three weeks. Now here he was on the brink of an actual panic attack. He hadn't had one of those since he was about twelve. He didn't need this right now...

"You alright kid?" Great, just what he needed.

* * *

**I hope you guys like this chapter. A lot of you wanted to see a little bit about Neil's past so here you go. Sorry if my updates are a little spacey lately, but I'll try to work on it.**


	7. Survivors

Neil couldn't bring himself to look up. He didn't want to be seen like this; the last thing he wanted wasto be looked at with pity by one of the Dixon brothers, or anyone really. He had more than enough pity for one life time. "I'm fine." Neil could tell his voice was cracking. "Leave me alone."

"I find it hard to believe yer fine when you were screaming yer damn head off." It was Daryl, well at least it wasn't Merle. "Thought a god damn walker got ya the way you were screaming."

Neil sighed and tried to calm down. He still felt like he was about to have a panic attack. "I- I'm fine Daryl... just had a nightmare. You can go now."

There was a moment of silence. Neil hoped Daryl was going to leave; he just wanted to be alone. The relationship he had with the Dixons was for survival purposes only, there was no way he was going to talk with them about his personal life. When they brought up stuff about their childhood around him it was different, that was mainly between them, he just happened to be there. Neil rarely shared personal information with others,and those were mainly people he **had** to talk about that stuff with. The Dixons didn't, nor would they ever fall under that category.

Neil looked at Daryl when he dropped to a knee next to him and set down his crossbow. He gave Neil a very analytic once over then looked him in the eyes. His eyes were set in the same harsh way they always were, but there was something else in his eyes, something Neil hadn't seen before. Neil looked at the ground, he didn't want to be seen like this. He felt pathetic, and Daryl was looking at him with those eyes, those blue, deep, soul swallowing eyes. Neil had never felt more embarrassed in his life. He wasn't supposed to let people see him like this.

Neil felt something on his chin, it was Daryl's hand. Daryl guided Neil's head up until he was looking at him again. Neil felt uncomfortable. What was he doing? Daryl continued to give him that same look not wavering for a second. Neil wanted to move or something, but he was honestly kind of afraid to. Neil looked away from Daryl trying to avoid the awkward eye contact, what was Daryl trying to do?

"Daryl..." Neil said quietly. "What are you doing?"

Daryl looked almost like he didn't know himself. "I'm not really sure. This is what Merle used to do when I was crying as a little kid. Figured it might help me figure something out, it's not working so well. Maybe Merle can read minds."

"I'm not crying Daryl." He wasn't, was he?

"Maybe ya aren't now, but ya were." Daryl removed his hand from Neil's chin and grabbed his crossbow. "Listen kid, I don't know what's going on in that head of yers, but once ya figure it out yourself yer gonna feel better about it." Daryl stood up, "Now get some rest; we're packing in the morning."

"Wait, what?"

"Merle and I decided we're joining that other group."

"Why?"

"None of 'em know how to hunt." Daryl scoffed and walked away.

The next morning everything was packed into the back of Daryl's truck. Things still weren't any better between the three of them. The events of yesterday was going to affect them for a while, but it would get better eventually. When Neil woke up that morning he was aching like crazy and could barely see out of his left eye because the bruising had spread, leaving him with a black eye and a swollen cheek. And though he was positive Merle hadn't broken any of his ribs they were bruised, and terribly at that. His injuries didn't feel nearly as bad yesterday, but Neil didn't complain. He could handle it; he could have been a lot worse off right now.

"Got everything packed?" Daryl asked.

Neil nodded in response.

"I'm good." Merle replied.

"Good." Daryl closed the back to the flatbed. "Get in the truck kid, we're leaving."

Neil walked over to the to the truck and climbed inside. He put the seat belt on and sat there waiting for the brothers to get completely ready. The brothers were talking, Neil didn't really care what about. He rested his head against the back of the seat and sighed. Hopefully today would be better than the last two, but he knew very well that things could stand to get much worse.

Neil looked at Daryl as he took a seat in the truck. The man didn't even give Neil a look. He was probably still pretty pissed off after yesterday. Neil could understand why, he and Merle had caused a lot of problems yesterday, and Daryl wasn't the type to put up with other people's bullshit. Neil did feel kind of bad for causing trouble, at least later in the day, but most of what went on was Merle's fault. That man had no self control.

It was a short drive to the campsite. It took no more than five minutes to get there. Daryl pulled up by one of the other vehicles at the camp, a faded green truck and Merle stopped next to them. Neil looked out the window, there were at least 20 people in this group. He had only seen a few of them yesterday, and knew even fewer of their names.

"So, I guess you decided to stay?" Shane said as he approached them.

Daryl nodded and got out of the truck. He didn't say anything, but he seemed to be observing the camp. Neil got out and stood next to Daryl and Merle on the other side of the truck.

"Nice of you to join us." Shane offered a hand to Daryl,Daryl extended his own a shook Shane's. Neil wasn't sure, but there appeared to be some tension between the two of them. "So, we cleared out an area for you. You can bring all of your things."

The three of them grabbed their belongings and took them over to a cleared off space that was pretty far from the rest of the camp. Obviously they weren't completely welcome yet. Maybe he shouldn't have given Lori that murderer line.

"How many people are there here?" Neil asked Shane as he set his bag down.

"30, counting the three of you, 33." Okay so his guess was a little short.

"Where'd y'all come from?" Merle asked.

"Atlanta. Place got overrun about a month ago, didn't have much choice but to come up here where it was safe. Gathered up as many as I could, there were more of us in the beginning; we lost a few back in the city."

"Do you think you're all that's left?" Neil asked. He hoped they weren't, he couldn't imagine the entire population of Atlanta being dead except a bit over 30.

"Of Atlanta? Doubt it, there are others out there who are more capable of surviving than us." Shane cracked his knuckles. "Where'd you come from?"

"Kid's from Atlanta." Merle said. "Darlene and I come from the mountains up North."

Shane nodded. "I'll leave you to unpack. Let me know if y'all need anything." Shane looked over the three of them suspiciously then turned and walked away.

Neil yawned, it made his chest hurt. He winced and tried to ignore the pain. _I don't have time for this. _Neil shook it off, and sat down on his bag. "So... 33 people huh? That's an awful lot."

Both of the brothers nodded. "Yep."

They still weren't going to be talking normally for a while, but this was something, and that was the best he was going to get from either of the brothers. They weren't going to be willing to talk this out, and Neil didn't want to either, but it was one of those things he knew had to be done. But even if he did decide to instigate the conversation chances are he would just be blown off, so he wasn't going to bother with it.

After maybe an hour or so of getting situated both of the Dixon brothers wandered off without a word, a few minutes in between them both leaving. Neil didn't ask where they were going, but he figured they wouldn't tell him even if he had. Even though he got along with the two of them well enough he knew better than to ask them any more questions than we needed, especially after yesterday, he didn't want to risk anymore bruises.

Neil spent the next while trying to set up a tent, something that after multiple camping trips he still couldn't figure out. Once when he was 12 he had almost done it, but it ended up collapsing when he tried to readjust it. On camping trips he normally stuck to a pop-up tent, but now he wasn't so lucky. Despite his struggles Neil couldn't get the tent set up properly. He was just about ready to give up...

"Need a hand?" Neil looked behind him to see the African-American man from earlier. He looked like a pretty generally nice guy, but as always Neil was wary.

"I can handle it." Neil replied shortly as he struggled with fastening the outer tent over the inner one, but as he struggled to do so the tent collapsed and Neil fell on top of it. Neil looked up at the man who was laughing at him, but was also offering him a hand. What had he done wrong this time? Neil took the man's hand and stood up with his help.

"I don't get what I'm doing wrong." Neil said mostly to himself. He should be able to do this by now, for God's sake he was 16, there were middleschoolers who could do this.

"You didn't put the poles into the eyelets." The man replied.

"The what?"

"Those little holes at the base. They hold the tent in place."

"Oh..." Neil spent the next few minutes setting up his tent with the man overseeing. Finally the tent was up.

"There you go." The man patted him on the back.

Neil gave him a half smile. "Thanks, uh..." He didn't know the man's name.

"You can call me T-Dog."

Neil tried not to laugh, what kind of name was that? It was going to be hard to take him seriously with a name like that. "I'm Neil."

"What's going on over here?" Neil didn't have to look to know it was Merle. He didn't sound too happy.

"Just finished setting up my tent." Neil replied.

Merle walked up to T-Dog, looked at him for a moment then turned to Neil. "What's that nigger doing here?"

Neil audibly gasped. Had Merle really just said that? Neil had been raised in the south, but the adults he was around had never been racially insensitive, at least not when he was around. Neil knew it wasn't beyond Merle to say that word, but it didn't take away any of the shock from it. Suddenly he felt a million times more uncomfortable in Merle's presence.

"He was helping me fix my tent." Neil said quietly. He looked at T-Dog who looked like he was ready to run away. Neil didn't blame him.

"Ya sure he didn't steal anything? " Merle asked.

Neil simply sighed and shook his head. Any respect he might've had for Merle went down the drain right then. "I think you should go T-Dog." T-Dog didn't hesitate for a second before taking off, practically tripping over his own feet. Neil stared hard at Merle, if this man wasn't a walking talking stereotype.

"What the hell are ya lookin' at boy?" Merle snapped.

"You." Neil gave Merle a slow once over. He could tell Merle he was a racist piece of shit, but as things were Neil would rather keep all of his teeth. In the end Neil just decided to walk away from it; it wasn't worth his time.

* * *

Dinner that night was silent and uncomfortable for a while. Neil could tell these people were wary of newcomers, and they should be, it's just weird when you're one of the people who are a potential threat. Neil wasn't going to harm anyone unless they started something, he knew the same couldn't be said for the two he had come with. Merle had told him stories of drunken bar fights the two of them had gotten into in the past, and a few sober ones as well. Those two weren't past starting fights, although Neil had never seen Daryl start anything, he knew that man knew how to stand his ground. He was witness to this about a week and a half ago.

_Merle came back from the forest and slapped Daryl playfully in the back of the head. Daryl who was cleaning his crossbow simply let out and irritated growl and slapped his brother's hand away. Neil at the time was drawing on the sketch pad he had brought with him. He wasn't really paying attention to the brothers until he heard the sound of Daryl's crossbow hitting the ground with a thud._

_Neil looked up to see Merle holding Daryl in a chokehold. Daryl was struggling in his brother's grip as Merle laughed obnoxiously. Neil wasn't sure what had happened, but it didn't really matter. Merle was high, he'd make up any excuse in the world to get rid of some energy. _

_"Let go of me Merle!" Daryl growled at his brother as he continued to struggle against the chokehold._

_Merle chuckled. "C'mon Darlene, not strong enough to get out of a little chokehold? "_

_"Shut up Merle!"Daryl somehow managed to free himself from his brother's grip, grabbed his crossbow off the ground, and hit his older brother in the back of the head with it. Merle fell to the ground, seemingly unconscious. "Asshole." Daryl muttered before sitting back down and continuing about his business as if nothing had happened?_

"So how do you guys like the camp?" Glenn asked nervously.

Neither of the Dixons so much as looked at Glenn. "It's alright." Neil said, not wanting to leave Glenn hanging. "Hard to believe we never came across this place before. We've been up here for about a month too."

"You must have made a lot of runs to the city for food." One of the two blonde (what Neil assumed to be sisters) said, he was pretty sure she was the younger one.

"Why would we do that?" Daryl asked, he didn't really seem interested in getting an answer.

"For supplies and food. We've had to make runs almost every week."

"We've done just fine."

"How?"

Daryl simply stood up and walked away from the group. Neil and Merle watched him walk all the way into the woods after grabbing a few things from his tent. He was probably going hunting.

"What was that about?" One of the women in the group whispered to another woman who sat next to her.

"He's going hunting." Neil's voice felt loud against the almost complete silence of the camp. "That's how we get food. He and Merle are both pretty good hunters, even if it's mostly squirrels they're catching."

Neil heard murmurs rising in the group. Apparently they hadn't known about that must have come as a huge relief for them to finally find some way of getting food besides running into that zombie infested town. Neil wondered if any of the people Shane had mentioned they lost in the city had been lost on runs. He wasn't about to ask, but it made him wonder nonetheless.

Neil didn't really know what to make of these people. Some of them had very distinct personalities, while others just faded into the background. There were old people and young people, adults and children. There didn't appear to be anyone Neil's age there, but that was okay, most people his age irritated him. No matter who these people were, what their backgrounds were, how old they were, or what they could do, they all had one thing in common. They were survivors, and Neil was lucky enough to be one of them.

* * *

**Sorry if this chapter feels a bit like filler content, but it had to be done. Probably won't be an update until Saturday night, valentines day **

**is going to be a few days for me so, I'll be very busy... if you know what I mean ; D**


	8. No One Gets Left Behind

When Neil woke up that morning both Dixon brothers were gone, he figured Daryl was still off hunting, but he didn't know where Merle was. At first he figured he'd wait and maybe he would show up, but he didn't. Neil finally decided to ask Shane if he knew where Merle had gone. But when he looked around Shane was nowhere in sight either, but he could see Lori. That woman was always hanging off Shane's arm. Neil didn't know if there was anything between them or not, but if anyone knew where Shane was, it was her.

"Hey Lori." Neil called as he approached her. The woman looked at him seeming almost surprised that he knew her name.

"Yes?" She crossed her arms over her chest.

"Do you know where Shane is? I need to ask him something."

Lori shook her head. "Try asking Dale, he normally keeps watch."

"Dale, that old guy with the hat, right?" Lori nodded. "Thanks Lori."

Once again Lori seemed surprised. She probably assumed him not to have any sort of manners, which was understandable.

"You're welcome." She replied with a small smile.

Neil over to the RV to see Dale sitting atop it. "Dale." He called.

Dale looked down and smiled. "What can I do you for son?"

"Do you know where Merle is? Or Shane? Either one will do really."

Dale looked a bit hesitant to answer. "I think Shane is off cutting some wood. Merle and a few of the others went to Atlanta for a supply run."

"Wait, what?" Neil couldn't believe Merle had actually agreed to go with them. "Why'd he go?"

"He and Shane got into it this morning. When the option to leave came up he didn't wait for a second to volunteer. They should all be back soon, hopefully within the next five or six hours."

"You said Merle and Shane got into a fight earlier, what about? " Neil kicked at the dirt on the ground.

"Merle was making advances on Lori and a few of the other women." Merle just couldn't keep himself out of trouble. "He also made a few... rude comments to some other people."

"Yeah, he tends to do that. He's not so bad once... well actually he's just as bad when you get to know him."

Dale laughed. "Is that so?"

"After a month of Merle Dixon I can assure you that. You get used to him though, eventually."

"So why were you looking for Shane?"

"Just wondering if he knew where Merle got off to."

Dale simply nodded. "I'll be sure to let you know when he comes back."

Neil went back to his tent and pulled out his sketch pad along with some pencils and an eraser He figured out what he was going to do today. Neil left his tent and walked over to the RV. he found the ladder and climbed up. Dale turned and looked at him. "Got room for one more? I won't cause any trouble, just need a good place to get a view from."

"Go right ahead." Dale nodded. "I could use the company."

For some time they sat there in silence while Neil did a sketch of the landscape. He wished he had brought some painting supplies, his fingers were practically itching for a paint brush, but a pencil would do for now. Drawing was another past times of Neil's, he had taken an art class every year he had been in school and it was always his favorite subject, although not his best. He was anything but perfect, but he was good enough to be happy.

"That's pretty good." Dale said from over his shoulder. Neil grinned slightly, it was always nice to receive a little praise for a successful work.

"Thanks."

"How long have you been drawing?"

"Since I was maybe five. I wasn't really any good until I was in seventh grade though. That's when I took my first real art class."

"You're very talented."

"I guess, but it's pretty useless now. The world doesn't need artists now. It need fighters, doctors, hunters, that kind of stuff. The only thing this pencil would be any good for would be takin' out one of those geeks."

"Geeks?"

"Walkers, biters... zombies, whatever you wanna call them."

"We try not to use the 'z' word around here."

"Why not?"

"It scares the kids."

"Like those things don't? I'd be more scared of what's trying to eat me than the name I call it." Neil scoffed.

"They are something to be scared of, but there aren't any of them up here."

"Not anymore at least. There were a few when we first came up here, but we haven't seen any since then. They're bound to come up here eventually."

"What makes you say that?"

"Atlanta is bound to run out of food Dale. They'll just roam around until they find food, and there are more than 30 of us up here. I'm not saying it'll be anytime too soon, but we won't be safe up here forever." Neil set his sketch pad down and pulled his left knee up to his chest. He winced, the pain in his chest hadn't been bothering him much today, but it came and went.

"Are you okay?" Dale leaned down next to him.

"Fine. Just a little sore from yesterday."

"Want me to take a look?"

"No." Neil said it a bit more harshly than he intended. "No..." He said quietly. "It's fine."

Dale nodded and stood up straight. "Alright." He didn't sound convinced at all, but he seemed like he was going to leave it alone. Neil was pretty glad that he wasn't going to keep pressing, he couldn't stand it when people did that. He knew he made himself sort of like an asshole when he snapped at people like that, but he really couldn't help it. It was just one of those habits that he couldn't break.

Neil turned his head when he heard the sound of static. He looked down and saw a radio that was hooked up to what Neil was pretty sure was a car battery. At first there was only garbled speech coming from the radio, but it quickly began to clear up. He said he was approaching Atlanta... that was no good. Dale climbed down the ladder of the RV and checked on the radio alongside a young blonde woman. They tried replying to the man, but they didn't seem to be getting through as the man kept repeating himself. Moments after the initial transmission Shane, Lori, and Carl all came as well. Shane tried get a response from the radio, but by the time he said anything there was only static coming from the other end.

"He's gone." Shane said as he set down the walkie attached to the radio.

Lori looked around for a moment then back at Shane. "There are others," She shrugged. "It's not just us."

"Figured there would be, right? That's why we left the CB on."

"'Lota good it's been doing. And I've been saying for a week we aughta' put signs up on 85 and warn people away from the city." Neil couldn't argue that that wasn't a good idea. Plenty of people could wander into that cit and have no idea what they're in for.

"Folks have no idea what they're getting into." The blonde girl said with a shake of her head.

Shane stood up and took his hat. "We haven't had time."

"I think we need to make time." Lori rebutted.

"That uh..." Shane rubbed his chin for a moment then threw a serious look at Lori. "That's a luxury we can't afford." He began to pace forward. "We are surviving here, we are day-to-day."

Dale shook his head, he clearly didn't agree with the idea. "And who the hell would you propose we send?"

"I'll go." Lori said stubbornly. "Give me a vehicle."

"Nobody goes anywhere alone; you know that." Shane replied. It seemed like they had argued about this before. He sighed then looked at Lori. She nodded and began to walk off, with Carl in tow.

"Yes sir." As she stormed off Shane cut Carl off an told him to go sit down. Carl seemed hesitant to agree but did so. The adults all scattered almost immediately afterwards.

"That went well." Neil called down to the young blonde woman. She looked at him and smile, and it was a lovely smile if Neil had ever seen one. _I must be stupid, thinking about how nice a girls smile is at a time like this. I must have brain damage. _

"We've had things go worse from time to time." She said to him. "I just hope that poor guy makes it out of Atlanta alright."

Neil shrugged. "Well if you can send people into that town and they come back alive I'm sure that guy make it."

"But we never send people alone."

"I heard. I wouldn't put too much thought into it, that guy isn't really your problem."

"So we should leave him for dead?"

Neil stood up and climbed down the ladder. He walked over to the girl and looked at her sternly. He was almost a full head taller than her. "I said no such thing, but if you can't do anything to help the guy then there's no sense in worrying about it."

"What do you suggest we do then?"

Neil began to walk towards his tent. He was going to lay down for a while so he wouldn't have to deal with as much pain in his chest. "Keep yourself busy. You people have chores or something don't you." He paused and looked back at her.

She nodded. "Yeah, that reminds me. Carol told me to ask you if you wanted your clothes washed."

Neil raised an eyebrow at this. "Um, sure. I don't see why not. Who's Carol by the way? I didn't catch a lot of names."

"She's the woman with the short gray hair, her daughter is Sophia, and her husband..." She made a somewhat disgusted face. "Her husband is Ed."

Neil wasn't going to bother asking what that was about; he'd find out sooner of later. At least that's the way he saw it. "Alright. See ya around..." He didn't know her name either.

"I'm Amy."

"See ya Amy."

Neil went off to his tent and lay down for a while just staring at the ceiling. He had never been more bored in his life, but he wasn't up for much movement right now anyway. He figured he'd just spend his day in his tent, away from people. He had more than enough one on one interaction with people to fill his quota. No, he wasn't obligated to talk with them, but he made himself do so to keep from becoming a total anti-socialite. There had been times when Neil went too long without any real social interaction that people thought he was crazy, either that or mute. He was going to try to keep people from assuming either of those things.

Today was a day Neil didn't know what to expect from. The main thing he was worried about is how the two people he had come with were going to do here. Neither of them were here now, and last night wasn't anything to go on. Merle was already causing trouble after less than a day here. It baffled Neil that a grown man could get himself in trouble with people he had just met a day ago more than once. He would hate to have seen how bad Merle was when he was younger. Neil wasn't too worried about Daryl, sure he still wasn't entirely sure if he trusted the man, but he didn't seem to be as big of a troublemaker as his older brother was. From the bits and pieces of their childhood Neil caught Merle had always been the one causing trouble while Daryl was just the on the sidelines, bu4 would jump in if he needed to.

Neil lay alone with his thoughts for a while before he heard someone unzipping his tent. Neil looked up to see Carol poking her head in. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"Actually I was just having a very interesting conversation with myself over a cup of tea." She gave Neil a small smile. She looked much too young to have a full head of gray hair, maybe she just aged well. "Are you the one who wants to do my laundry?"

She nodded. "Your clothes look like they could use a washing."

"Yeah, once upon a time this shirt was white." Sadly he wasn't joking, his formally white shirt was now something between tan and gray. "If you'll give me a minute I can change out of these and into my other clothes."

"Those can't be much better. You look like you might be able to fit something of Jim's. You get out of those and I'll be right back."

Neil nodded and waited for the woman to leave. These people were pretty nice to complete strangers. He climbed out of his clothes, except his underwear, and set them on the ground outside his tent along with the extra clothes he had packed inside his bag. It was a few minutes until Carol came back. She stood outside his tent for a moment.

"I'm not coming in. I'll just leave the clothes out here for you." Then a few moments later she was gone.

Neil peaked out of the tent and took the clothing. They were by no means laundry machine clean, but they were the closest thing to clean he had worn in a while. It was just a simple black button-up shirt and a pair of blue jeans. He put the clothing on and noticed that the clothes were actually a bit loose, but they were better than nothing. Once he was fully dressed again Neil laid back down.

He may or may not have dozed off for a while, but when he opened his eyes again he felt refreshed. Neil got out of his tent and stood up. He looked around the camp, and everyone seemed pretty busy. Neil felt sort of like he should be doing something to help out, but didn't have the slightest idea of who he could help, or how for that matter. There really wasn't too much he could do, but he'd do whatever he could to help out around the camp. Did they even want his help? They would have asked if they did, right?

He could see Dale and a man who Neil didn't know the name of working on the engine of the RV with the blonde girl- Amy pacing back and forward by them. The thing probably wasn't running correctly, but Neil didn't know anything about cars, so he wouldn't really be any help in that area. A few of the women were hanging up some clothes on clothes lines they had set up, but they looked like they were almost done. Then there were various other people fixing random things. There obviously wasn't too much for him to do right now.

Neil looked at the sky, it had to be about 6:00 or 7:00 right now and in the distance the skies were turning gray. When were the others supposed to get back anyway? Neil didn't know how these trips normally went, so he would have to play it by ear. The only thing he knew is they wouldn't be gone past sunset, that is unless something bad happened to them. Neil was pretty sure they'd be fine, if they were willing to go then they were probably pretty capable. Not knowing what else to do Neil walked over to the RV to see if he could be of any assistance.

"What's wrong with the RV?" Neil asked casually.

Dale looked up. "The radiator hose."

Neil didn't even know what that was. Neil knew nothing about this kind of stuff, he couldn't even set up a clock properly. Neil once knew this guy who was a mechanic, he tried to teach Neil how to fix cars, but he never caught on. He didn't really know what any of the parts did, but he had helped a few guys scrap some cars for parts. The names didn't matter, what mattered is that he got money from them, but that was in the past. "Oh."

Neil looked at Amy, she seemed worried. Even still she was cute. _Get your mind off of girls, now isn't the time to be forming a crush. _It was true, the last thing he needed was to end up with a huge crush on this girl and then have her die or something. "It's late." Amy snapped him out of his thoughts. "They should be back by now."

"Worrying won't help." Dale said without looking up.

Amy shook her head and continued to pace. Neil shrugged. "He's right you know. I'm sure they'll be fine though, they've gone on runs before right?"

"Yes, but they're never gone this long. They should've been back at least an hour ago. That city is full of those things, what if something happened?"

"They're fine. The rain probably just set them back a bit. They'll show up sometime soon. Besides I-" Then came the loud blaring of a car alarm in the distance. Neil was one of the first to hear it. He looked towards the noise to see a bright red sports car driving up the road to the camp. Hopefully it was one of their people, even still that idiot was going to draw the walkers to them with all that noise.

"Is it them? Are they back?" Beth asked.

Dale mumbled something as he looked through his binoculars from the top of the RV. Neil hadn't even noticed him go up there.

"What is it?" Amy asked, sound anxious.

"A stolen car is my guess."

By now most of the camp had gathered around trying to see what the noise was coming from. Within a few moments the car drove up to the camp and out came Glenn. That idiot as smiling as he got out, like he had something to be proud of. That idiot could've drawn the walkers back to their camp with all that noise. What the hell was he thinking? Did he think this was funny or something?

"Turn that thing off!" Dale shouted.

Glenn threw up his hands. "I don't know how!"

And that's when all the yelling started, Amy and Shane both walked up to Glenn and started berating him with questions. He wasn't sure what Amy was saying, but he heard Glenn shout, "She's okay."

Finally one of the men in the group managed to disconnect the alarm.

"Where is she?" Amy continued to yell. "Why isn't she with you? Where is she? Is she okay?"

"Yes... yeah. She's fine, everybody is." Glenn paused and looked at Neil for a moment, then at the ground. "Well Merle not so much."

Neil's entire being froze for a moment. Something had happened to Merle. Oh god, what was Daryl going to do? Neil marched up to him feeling a lot more angry than he thought he really felt a right to. "What happened to him?"

Glenn continued to look at the ground. "Well uh..."

"Tell me what the hell happened to him! Is he alive? Did you leave him there?"

Glenn nodded.

"What the hell is wrong with you? I should kick your ass!" Neil grabbed Glenn by the front of his shirt, only now did he realize he was a bit taller than him as well. "Why would you leave him in that city? He's going to die out there! And Daryl- Daryl is going to-"

"Well **I **didn't leave him!" Glenn put his hands up. "The new guy handcuffed him to the roof and T-Dog lost the key."

"Why was he handcuffed to a roof? "

"He was a danger to the group."

Neil opened his mouth to say something,but what could he say? He knew Merle and he knew that man could a ton and a half of problems for these people. Neil let go of Glenn's shirt and took a few deep breaths, his chest was hurting again. "So, who's this new guy?"

Before Glenn could answer a big moving van rolled up to the camp as well. Everyone turned their attention to the van. Everyone who had gone to Atlanta, excepting Merle, came out of the van. Amy immediately ran up to her sister and hugged her tightly. Neil couldn't help but smile a bit. Morales' family did the same to him. It was then when Neil got this feeling in the pit of his stomach, he hated seeing all this family stuff. As happy as he was for them it reminded him that he was turned away and saw Lori saying something to Carl that he couldn't hear. He figured it was about Carl's father. He knew Lori and Shane had something going on, but it was obvious that Shane wasn't his father. He didn't know what had happened to Carl's father and doubted he was ever going to find out.

"How'd y'all get out of there anyway?" Shane asked.

"New guy," Glenn replied. "He got us out."

"Yeah," Said Morales. "Crazy vato just got into town." He looked toward the van. "Come say hello."

Neil watched as a man in a sheriff's uniform climbed out of the van and walked toward the camp. _Well that explains why he had handcuffs. _Shane looked at the man with disbelief, like he hadn't expected to see the man and the stranger gave him the same look. Shane had once been an officer of the law, they must have known each other. Then the man pointed at something behind him Neil turned to see Carl and Lori both staring at the man in much the same way Shane had been. Neil looked back at the man, he was walking toward Carl and Lori, then Carl shouted what confirmed Neil's thoughts. "Dad!"

The two of them met in an embrace, both of them on their knees. The man then picked up Carl and walked towards Lori who also met him in a hug. The three of them were back together. He didn't know how long the family was apart, or what had separated them, but now they were together again. The entire camp stood in silence while the family stood there holding each other. Neil couldn't handle seeing anymore of this stuff, he walked off and went to his tent.

For a while Neil sat there alone, only hearing parts of what the people outside said. He wasn't really listening to them though. He was just glad that he wasn't having to watch those people anymore. He was happy for them, very much so in fact, but he hated being reminded about the fact that he would never have one of those happy reunions with his family. Most of these people had someone, and the other who didn't were adults. Neil wasn't ready for this, he never should have left home, maybe things would be different if he hadn't done that. But that was all in the past, and he could never change that.

* * *

Neil didn't leave his tent that night, but he could hear the others talking. He didn't pay too much attention, but fr a while they discussed what they were going to do about telling Daryl that they left Merle in Atlanta. He laughed to himself when they mentioned that it would probably sound better coming from a white guy. That probably was true though, if Merle was racist Daryl probably was too. It wasn't their fault though, they were probably brought up that way. They argued for a while over who was going to tell Daryl. Both Lori's husband, his name was Rick, and T-Dog volunteered. Not too long afterwards they all retired to their tents.

Neil was actually pretty concerned about how Daryl would react to Merle being left in the city. He knew the two of them didn't get along very well, but as they say "Blood runs thicker than water", he would probably go to find him. That's what family did right? They looked out for each other no matter what. As things stood they'd have to wait until Daryl came back to know for sure. Hopefully he would bring Merle back, then we'd see what would happen next. He'd be angry when he came back, but he'd make sure his brother came back safe. If Neil could be sure about anything it was that.


	9. Squirrel everybody's favorite

Neil woke up the next day feeling better than he had in a few days. By now most of the bruises save for the ones on his ribs had faded and his chest wasn't bothering him as much. He knew he had about a week of chest pain ahead of him, and another week or two until he would be completely healed. For now he would just have to hope he wouldn't have to do too much hard work until they healed. Not that there was really anything for him to do.

A few minutes after waking up Neil crawled out of his tent to see his clothes laying on the ground outside folded very neatly. He would have to thank Carol later. Neil took the clothes and threw on a black T-shirt with the words "The Casualties" barely even visual anymore and a pair of dark blue jeans that had a small tear in the left knee. Neil laced up his boots and finally left his tent.

People around the camp were doing what Neil assumed they normally did except a few of the people were stripping down the car Glenn had driven to the camp for parts. Glenn obviously wasn't too happy about this, and it was understandable, that was a pretty nice looking car. Even still the parts would have better use elsewhere. Maybe they'd be able to find whatever they needed to get Dale's RV running. It was a hose or something, right?

Neil was about to head over to the car when he heard screaming. Well, wasn't today going to be exciting? Neil saw the African-American woman, Carl, and Sophia running back to camp screaming their heads off. Without a second of thought Neil went to check out the what the fuss was about then a sharpened pole landed in his hands he turned to Shane who had tossed him the pole. _Walkers, right. _

He followed Shane to the clearing where there was a nice looking deer with a few bolts sticking out of it. Daryl must have got it, too bad there was a walker chowing down on it. They were joined by Rick, Glenn, Morales, and one man Neil didn't know the name of. The other men began to surround the walker, then the thing stood up, growled and lunged at Rick, but before the thing got too close Rick hit it in the head with the pole he had been armed with. The walker stumbled back and was met by a blow to the back with the butt of Shane's shot gun, and it was then knocked to the ground by a blow from Glenn.

Neil stepped back as the five men beat on the walker; he couldn't do it. He knew that thing wasn't human, but it still looked like one... sort of. Sure it was decomposing and whatnot, but it looked human enough that Neil couldn't see himself killing it. He knew it was stupid that he thought of those things as any sort of human, but that is what they used to be.

After a few seconds of them beating the walker Dale stepped in and chopped the thing's head off with an axe. Neil stared at the headless corpse for a few seconds, almost unable to believe what he was seeing, then he turned and expelled the contents of his stomach onto the forest bushes behind him. He was getting real tired of this shit.

"That's the first one we've had up here." He heard Dale say. "They never come this far up the mountain. "

"I fucking told you. " Neil said, followed by a cough. He stood up, wiped his mouth, and turned to the others. "Atlanta's out of food for these things. Of course they're coming up here, where else are they gonna go?"

The rest of the men looked down at the walker for a moment, but all turned at the sound of rustling coming from the woods. They all raised their weapons and waited,it was probably another walker. Neil braced himself, he would have to kill one sooner or later. If not now, then when? The noise grew closer and the man closed in on it. Then Neil saw what was making the noise, Daryl. _Shit... the only thing worse than a walker that could show up right now. _ Daryl was going to raise hell when he found out Merle was gone.

"Aw Jesus. " Shane said lowering his gun. Chances are he was thinking the same thing.

"Son of a bitch." Daryl stepped into the clearing. "That's my deer."

Everyone including Neil backed up. Daryl muttered something, then began kicking the headless corpse, each blow accompanied by a flurry of curses.

"Calm down son," Dale said. "That's not helping."

Daryl walked up to Dale. "What do you know about it old man? Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to 'On Golden Pond'?" Neil couldn't help himself, when Daryl said that second part he laughed. Everyone looked at him like he was crazy, and he had to be if he was laughing at a time like this. He couldn't help it, what Daryl had said was kind of funny.

"Sorry." Neil tried to regain his composure. "I'm sorry."

Daryl shook his head at Neil then turned to the deer. "I've been tracking this deer for miles." He pulled the bolts from the deer. "Was gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison." He pulled out his knife and pointed at the part of the deer the walker had been snacking on. "Think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?"

"We can't risk that." Shane replied. Neil wasn't about to disagree. If a bite could turn you then there was a good chance that whatever I'm the bite that did that was in the deer. Neil was half surprised that the deer hadn't come back trying to eat them. _Night of the Living Deer._

"That's a damn shame." He stood up straight. "I got some squirrel, about a dozen or so." _Squirrel... everybody's favorite... _"That'll have to do." Daryl kicked the head of the walker and it reacted. So, the head stayed alive after decapitation...

"Oh god." Neil turned to see Amy and Andrea walking off. He hadn't even known they were there.

"Come on people, what the hell?" Daryl took his crossbow and launched a bolt into the head, more specifically its eye. He pulled the bolt out and began to walk off. "It's gotta be the brain." He looked at Rick for a moment. "Don't y'all know nothing?" Then he began walking towards camp, Neil was quickly behind him.

"Merle! " Daryl called when he walked into camp. "Merle, get yer ass out here. We got us some squirrel. " He set down his bow by a log.

"Daryl." Shane said. Daryl looked over his shoulder at him. "Slow up a bit, I need to talk to you." Here came the part of the day Neil wasn't looking forward to.

Daryl stopped and looked at Shane. "About what?"

Shane paced a bit. "About Merle." He walked past Daryl a bit then turned back. "There was a uh... problem in Atlanta."

Daryl looked around for a moment. "He dead?" Such a blunt question.

"We're not sure." Shane replied.

Daryl walked up to Shane getting more and more angry by the second. "Either he is or he ain't."

"There's no easy way to say this so I'll just say it." Rick said as he approached Daryl.

"Who are you?" Daryl asked.

"Rick Grimes."

"Rick Grimes, ya gotta something ya wanna tell me?"

"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him to a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there."

Daryl turned away for a moment. "Let me process this." He shot Rick a nasty look. "Ya said ya handcuffed my brother to a roof, and you left him there!"

Rick nodded. "Yeah."

Daryl stood their for a moment, then tossed the squirrels he had over his shoulder at Rick. Rick ducked under the squirrels, and no less than a second later he was coming at Rick, then Shane tackled him. They were both on the ground and Shame rolled off him. Daryl yanked his knife from it's sheath and jumped to his feet. Before Neil knew what he was doing he had rushed over to Daryl and grabbed Daryl's wrist. Daryl began to pull away, but stopped when he saw it was Neil.

"What the hell do ya think yer doing?" He snapped at him.

"Trying to keep you from killing a guy who made the right choice and getting yourself hurt!" Neil snapped back. "Just stop, okay? You're not helping anything by trying to beat the shit out of anyone." Neil let go of Daryl's wrist, crossed his arms, and stared at him.

Daryl glared at Neil for a moment then turned away.

"It's not Rick's fault." It was T-Dog. "I had the key... I dropped it."

"You couldn't pick it up?" Daryl asked.

"I dropped it down a drain"

Daryl scoffed and shook his head. He walked past T-Dog away from most of the group. "If that's supposed to make me feel better, it don't."

"Maybe this will. I chained the door to the roof so the geeks couldn't get at him." This was new to Neil, he figured they had just left him there. "With a pad lock."

"That's gotta count for something." Rick said.

Daryl turned away for a moment, then turned back. "To hell with all y'all!" Then his voice got more quiet. "Just tell me where he is so I can go get him."

"He'll show you." It was, surprising enough, Lori. "Isn't that right?" It sounded almost like a challenge.

Rick nodded. "I'm going back." And with that Daryl stormed off.

Neil looked around as things seemed a lot more quiet now that Daryl had gone. He hoped he made the right move by stopping Daryl. He was half surprised the man hadn't elbowed him in the face or tried to attack him when he had grabbed him. Not once since had met him had he even thought of touching Daryl Dixon, and he had just grabbed the man while he was armed. What was he thinking? You don't touch Daryl Dixon, especially when he was angry, then again you don't stab Merle Dixon or handcuff him to a roof, and both of those had happened quite recently. The rules of what you do and don't do were certainly changing these days.

"You're either brave or stupid." It was that man who Neil still didn't know the name of.

"Or crazy." Neil added.

"What we're you thinking, grabbing an armed man?" The man smirked.

"I wasn't, it just kinda happened. I never really think before I do much. Lately it's been having pretty interesting results."

"You better start thinking unless you want to get killed."

"I keep telling myself that same thing."

* * *

"I'm coming too." Neil said as he stood with Daryl in the back of the moving van.

"No ya ain't." Daryl replied.

"And why not?"

"Town's full of geeks and ya can't even look at one getting sick. Yer just gonna get in the way."

"So I just sit here while you run off after Merle?"

"That's the plan. Ya wanna be useful, then go skin those squirrels. Yer not goin', like it or not."

"And what of you don't come back? Like you saId, the town's overrun."

"Ain't nothing gonna happen to me. I'm gonna get Merle, and I'm gonna come back, plain and simple."

Neil shook his head. "This is ridiculous. That town is death trap!"

"Well my brother is in that death trap, so ya best shut yer mouth!"

"You're going to get yourself killed Daryl!"

"Not gonna happen."

'How can you be so sure."

"Truth is I'm not."

"Look... just be careful okay."

Daryl eyed Neil and sighed in exasperation. "Fine, whatever kid."

"And I wouldn't 'get in the way' for your information."

Daryl shook his head. "Keep tellin' yourself that."

Neil glared at him. "Just wait, I'll prove it." Neil began walking away out of the van. He turned back to Daryl and added, "Asshole." Then walked away. One way or another Neil was going to prove he wasn't useless, and he had a pretty good idea how.

* * *

**Hey guys, how's it hanging? First update in a few days, but it's hard writing in scenes from the show. I had to watch the scene with the deer all of 10 times. 10 TIMES. Next update will probably be Monday or Tuesday. Feel free to PM me if you so wish. Also thanks to everyone who has reviewed and or given me feedback, it as I've said is very helpful. Have a nice day.**


	10. Another Mistake

"Why didn't ya say he was in the back with ya?" Daryl shouted at T-Dog and Glenn.

"W-well," T-Dog stuttered, "I figured since he was climbing in he had permission to come. He's always with you anyway."

Daryl slapped both of his palms over his face and cursed under his breath. Neil didn't think it'd be so easy. All he did was climb in the back of the van and stay quiet the entire time. As stupid as the plan sounded it had worked, but it was still incredibly stupid.

Rick looked at Neil curiously then at Daryl. "Is he going to be a problem? If so we can just leave him to watch the van."

"You've got to be kidding me." Neil snapped. "I didn't come here to watch the van, I came here to help."

"Yeah, 'cause we all know how much help you are." Daryl muttered. " I already said ya weren't coming. "

Neil scoffed. "That worked well."

"Well, what are we gonna do with him?" Glenn asked.

"Leave him here."Daryl said. "Last thing we need is this kid getting in the way."

"For the last time," Neil snapped. "I'm not going to get it the way."

"We don't have time for this." Daryl said as he began to walk off. "We're getting Merle then we're leaving. "

"And the guns!" Glenn said. "We need those."

"Whatever."

Neil looked at the other men and laughed nervously. He knew this wasn't exactly the best idea in the world, and he wasn't really sure what he'd meant to prove by doing that.

"I think you should stay here." Rick said.

"Oh come o-" Neil began to protest.

"You're unarmed, and I get the feeling you'll just be in the way. Stay here and with the van, we'll be back." Without another word the others walked off.

Neil sighed and leaned against the van. He really shouldn't have expected anything else, after all, he hadn't thought this through even remotely; he just kind of hoped it would work. Now here he was, just stuck watching the van. He would be lying if he said he wasn't a bit pissed about getting left here, but it's not like there was much of a chance for another outcome. At least he was doing something almost useful, even if it wasn't likely that a walker had any interest in driving off with the van, and the city was empty, there was no way there was anyone there. It would be suicide to stay in Atlanta in its current state, anyone who stayed would be dead, or at least near dead by now.

Neil never thought he'd think about the death of people so casually, maybe he was becoming desensitized. As messed up as that sounded, with the world in the state it was that was probably a positive thing. He never thought he'd be living in a situation where he'd have to get used to seeing dead people, at least he wouldn't have to kill anyone, not a human anyway. Well, hopefully not, things had potential to get pretty bad in the future, worse than this. And Neil couldn't imagine it getting worse than this, but it was bound to happen, it was just a question of whether he lived to see it.

Now all there was to do was wait for the others to get back. He didn't really know how long he could expect them to be long. Getting Merle hopefully wouldn't be too much trouble, but he didn't know about those guns they were going to get. He could be waiting there for hours... He should have just stayed at the camp. At least there he'd have something interesting to do like talk to that Amy girl. Neil couldn't really deny his crush on her, but he wouldn't act on it, this was no time for that kind of thing. What kind of thing exactly? He didn't really know.

"Hey, see that van over there?" Neil turned at the sound of a voice. He didn't see anyone yet, but he rushed to the other side of the van to hide anyhow.

"Yeah, let's check it out, maybe it's got gas."Another voice said.

Neil silently waited as the footsteps got closer to him and the van. What was he going to do if these guys were hostile? He wasn't armed, and even if he could hold his own in a fight, there were at least two of these guys. The footsteps stopped at the opposite side of the van, Neil held his breath in anticipation. He heard the sound of the two men checking the van and hoped they'd stay on the other side of the van.

"Yeah the thing looks good, and it's still warm. Someone must've driven it down here not too long ago. Let's take this thing, the Phil can probably find some use for this." One of the men said.

"Good idea." Neil heard footsteps coming closer, he had to get where they couldn't see him. There was really only one place to go, Neil quickly and as quietly as he could slid underneath the van. He lay on his stomach and watched the two men walk towards the driver's seat. It seemed like they didn't notice him.

"You know how to hook up one of these things?" One man asked.

"Yeah, no problem." The other replied. "You go check for biters."

"Alright." Neil watched in silence as the man walked around the van. He needed to get out of here without them seeing him, but he had no idea how he was going to do that without getting spotted. Maybe if he crawled towards the front he could sneak out, but he'd be taking his chances, and he didn't know what these men were armed with. If they had guns he could get shot, and without a doctor he'd probably die from it. He could always wait it out, but that left a slight chance of getting ran over. No matter what he did he was kind of screwed. He really should have stayed at camp.

"There's none around here." The man said. "What we oughta worry about is whoever brought this thing, they're probably coming back."

"Like we couldn't handle them." The other replied.

"I dunno, there are some crazy people out there. We don't know what we're dealing with."

"Whoever it is can't be too smart if they left their means of transportation unguarded."

"Well maybe they didn't and they're waiting around here."

"There aren't exactly a lot of places to be hiding around here." And with that the van started up.

"There we go. Let's get the hell outta here."

"Hold on man."

"What?"

Neil stayed still and waited for either of them to speak, but he heard nothing. This is when Neil got nervous. Were the others on their way back? Was it walkers? Or something else maybe? Neil listened carefully as the men walked towards each other. He could hear faint whispers, but what they said was beyond him. Maybe they would leave, then he'd have a chance to get away.

"We can see you down there."

Neil didn't even have time to speak before he was dragged from under the van and pulled to his feet. One of the men, he was bald but had a bushy red beard, pointed a gun at Neil. Without a second of hesitation Neil put up his hands in surrender. He should've taken his chances and taken off earlier.

"Listen, I don't want any trouble. " Neil said.

"Did anyone say you could talk? What were you doing down there?"

"Hiding. I was just supposed to be watching the van."

The man smiled. "Oh, so you're with the people who drove this baby down here."

"Yeah."

"How many of you are there?"

"What's it to you?"

The man stepped closer and pressed the gun to Neil's forehead. "Do I look like I'm playing? You better learn to respect a man who has a gun to your head."

Neil sighed. "There are 3 others. They're going back into town for a man that got left behind." He had to leave out the guns, if these guys found out about them they'd make sure to take advantage of that knowledge.

"They got anything of use on them?" The other man asked he was shorter and had a mess of blonde hair.

Neil shook his head. "They just have one or two guns and a few rounds. We're pretty low on everything, honestly we probably shouldn't be wasting ammo going back for one guy."

"Why the big van?" The bearded man asked. "It's the only way we could all fit."

"Where are you all holed up?"

"Just some spot in the woods, we've been moving around to keep walkers off our tail. We don't have a secure place or anything." For once Neil's skill for lying could be put to good use, if he made it seem like they had nothing to offer these guys would just take the van and go.

"Well I guess we don't need anything else from this kid." The blonde said. "Get rid of him."

"You're not going to shoot me are you? Come on..."

"You're not worth the ammo." The bearded man lowered his gun.

"Oh thank-" All Neil remembered was something hitting him in the back of the head, then everything went black.


	11. Broken Bones & Broken Glass

Neil slowly opened his eyes, his head was spinning and throbbing, and his vision was blurry. His entire body was inexplicably aching and he could feel dried blood on his mouth and chin. It was a few minutes (at least he assumed so) until he was fully conscious, he went to bring his hand up to the bump he felt forming on the back of his head, but when he did his hand felt restrained. Neil craned his neck as best he could, and could barely see his hand were bound with some rope. Those assholes knocked him out and tied him up, if he ever saw them again they were dead meat. He could understand them knocking him out, but why bother tying him up?

Where was he anyway? He wasn't where he was when they knocked him out. Actually, it looked like an alley way. It was pretty empty aside from a garbage bin and some old milk crates. He didn't recognize the alley, not that he expected to; alleys weren't something he paid any particular attention to. Chances are they hadn't taken him too far away though; that would be a waste of their time. Then again, bringing him here seemed like a waste of time too.

Neil rolled on to his back, and sat himself up without too much effort. Now he had a better view of the alley. It was a pretty short one, with both ends blocked off by fencing, but one end had an opening cut in it. That must have been how those guys got him in here. There was a door in the alley that lead into one of the buildings. He wanted to check it out, but first he'd have to get his hands out of the ropes, so he'd need something sharp. He gave the alley another look over and saw there was some shattered glass on the ground, but other than that there wasn't anything he could use.

Ne inched toward the glass and searched for a decently sized piece that he could actually use for cutting through the rope. There was only one piece that he could use to cut through the rope, and that was just a maybe. Neil turned his back to the glass and tried to grab the piece when he heard the sound of the fence rattling behind him, the one with the hole in it. He looked and saw four walkers clawing against the fence. Neil's pulse practically double within a second. This was going to have to be done fast, because eventually those things were going to get in.

He fumbled to pick the piece of glass, cutting his fingers along the way, but he couldn't be bothered with that right now, escape was more important. A few bloody fingers later the glass was in hand he got to work on cutting away at the rope. Neil took a quick look at the walkers, there were more of them now, and they were starting to get through the fence. Neil cursed under his breath and cut faster. If he didn't get this done quickly he was dead. He could feel the rope starting to give, but he wasn't going to have enough time to get free. One of the walkers had made its way in.

Neil moved back as quickly as he could until he hit the other fence. Those sick fucks had planned this. They knew he wouldn't be able to get out of there on his own, and they probably drew the walkers towards him too. He knew he should have stayed back at camp, this never would have happened. He always figured he'd die because of his own dumb decision-making, but he didn't want it to end like this. Being bitten to death by walkers, then he'd be one of them. No one was coming to save him from this one, he was on his own. Needless to say he was terrified.

_"Hey kid." Neil looked up from the ground at Merle. _

_"Yeah?" It was about a week after he had met the Dixons, and Neil still didn't feel too comfortable with them. He wanted to trust them, but something told him he shouldn't. So far they hadn't done anything to make him distrust them, but caution was a virtue he'd rather not give up.  
_

_"C'mon, gonna show ya how to track." _

___Neil raised an eyebrow an scoffed. _"Why?" He inquired.

_"So ya can do something useful. All ya do is sit around camp."_

_Neil spent the next while in the woods, and Merle showed him a bit about tracking. Neil was far from good at it, but he learned something at the very least. Neil really wasn't really paying that much attention though, he didn't want to be around Merle, especially not alone. Fortunately right now Merle seemed to be in a pretty decent mood. He didn't have a real reason to be afraid of Merle, other than the fact that the guy was huge._

_"If we're gonna do this ya need to stop that stompin' around of yers." Merle snapped at him._

_"I'm not stomping. What are you talking about?"_

_"Yer steps are too loud. If we were hunting you'd scare anything off."_

_"Sorry." Neil looked down at he ground. He didn't think his steps were that loud, but he wasn't really mindful of that type of thing anyhow._

_"See that?" Merle pointed to some tracks in the mud._

_"Yeah, what about it?"_

_"What do ya think it's from?"_

_Neil looked at it for a moment, it didn't really look like much. It was medium sized, and there were no real indents besides the center one. "I don't know, a moose?"_

_Merle scoffed. "When was the last time ya saw a moose in Georgia?"_

_"I don't even know where moose live... like Canada, right?"_

_"Yeah, that's one place. Yer smarter than you look."_

_"Than- Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"_

_"It means exactly what it sounds like."_

_"Hey, Merle can I ask you something?"_

_"Go ahead."_

_"Those things, how can you kill them like that?"_

_Merle looked at him for a moment with an expression that Neil couldn't really make out. "Like what?"_

_"Well... like it's nothing. They were people."_

_"Yeah, but now they ain't. It's like this, either ya kill them, or they kill ya. When it comes to it, I'd rather kill those damn abominations."_

_"I don't think I could do that."_

_"Well, I hope yer fine with being a walker then."_

_"Who knows, maybe it wouldn't be that bad. I hear human meat tastes pretty good."_

_Merle started at him for a moment. "I don't think I want to know the sorta people ya hang around."_

_Neil laughed. "I don't know anyone who's eaten a person... well, I guess I do now."_

_"Don't we all?"_

Hopelessly he watched as the walker stumbled towards him and the others worked their way through the fence. This was the end, he was going to die here, then come back as one of those monsters. He couldn't save himself from this, and help wasn't coming any time soon. He didn't know what to do in these last moments, he always hoped his death would be quick, and hopefully painless, but here he was about to be torn to bits by walkers. He wondered how long he was going to suffer, and what being a walker might be like. Would he remember anything, or would his body roam without his mind? Would his life flash before his eyes? Was there going to be heaven or hell, or would there be nothing at all? If there was heaven or hell which one was he going to? He wanted answers, and now he was going to get them.

Neil stared at the walker, its dead glazed over eyes stared at him with a primal hunger. It was a girl, or it used to be, and she looked like she had been pretty before she turned. Long blonde hair, big beautiful eyes, nice long legs. Too bad she ended up like this, and Neil was about to join her.

"Well, I could do worse than you." He said to her. "You're a real looker, if you weren't a walker I might not mind you biting me." He chuckled to himself. "Well, not too hard that is." Neil looked up at the sky, this was probably the last time he'd see it, and he wanted a nice long look. It was a baby blue sky littered with clouds, he didn't expect much else. He wanted this to be the last thing he saw, it was good enough. There were plenty of things he would've rather seen, his family, his friends, even the people at the camp, but this would do. He'd take what he could get, and it was enough.

Then suddenly he didn't want to die. He didn't want to just give in, he wanted to fight... he wanted to live. Neil looked up at the walker who was only about a foot away. "Sorry sweetheart, maybe some other time." Neil leaned on the fence, pulled himself to his feet, and kicked that walker to the ground. He walked over to her and stared for a moment. "I always said I'd never hit a girl, but I guess you don't count."

He stomped on the thing's head, again, and again, and again, and as he kept doing it he got more angry and kept going until its skull gave way and its head was nothing more than a pile of brain matter and shattered bones. Neil stared at the mess he made of it, and he didn't feel sick, he didn't feel bad either. He was just angry, angry at what was happening to the world, and what he knew was going to happen to him. He was going to have to kill a lot more of these things, and he wouldn't regret it, because they weren't people anymore. They were just empty husks of what used to be people. There was nothing left of who they used to be, they were nothing but a part of the problem, and he was going to have to help stop that problem. And maybe that didn't make him a monster like he thought it might, maybe it was just necessary now.

"That was awesome." Neil turned around to see Glenn standing on the other side of the fence.

"Glad to see you. Mind untying me so I can get the hell outta here?" Neil asked.

"No problem kid, just get over here."

"You don't have to tell me twice." Neil backed into the fence and Glenn began working at the rope. He watched as two more walkers got through the fence. "You might wanna speed up the process."

"I'm not exactly a boy scout when it comes to knots." Glenn laughed nervously.

"So I'm guessing you don't have knife on you?"

"No..."

"Great."

"Hey, I'm doing what I can."

"Well do it faster! I don't exactly feel like becoming walker food today."

Neil stood there silently waiting to get untied before he had to worry about killing two walkers at once. Finally the ropes came loose. he shook them off turned around and climbed up the fence. Once at the top the took one last look at the walkers before jumping down. "Thank you." He said to Glenn.

"Yeah, we need to go. The others are still looking for you." Glenn began walking, and Neil followed.

"Do y'all find Merle?"

Glenn stopped dead in his tracks. "Um... sort of."

"What do you mean "sort of"? Did you or not?"

"Well, we found his hand."

"What? So, is he dead?"

"We don't think so, he got off the roof, but we don't know where he got off to."

"So... so he cut off his hand?"

Glenn nodded and resumed walking. Neil followed. "Yeah, he cauterized the wound in the building, so he probably didn't bleed out... and I'm guessing he's not the one who took the van?"

"No, it was some other guys. I don't know who they were exactly, but they wanted it pretty bad I guess. They're the ones who put me in there."

"Figures, there are still people here. Plenty of them at that."

"How many?"

"I dunno, 30 maybe. Most of them are elderly in the nursing home, that and some asshole vatos. They tried to steal the guns and kidnapped me."

"I guess none of us are having very good days today."

"That's an understatement."

The two of them walked back to where the van had been and waited for a while until the others came back, and as expected some were more happy to see him than others.

"So ya just let them take the van!" Daryl shouted almost as soon as he heard what happened.

"I didn't **_let_ **anyone do anything, they had a gun to my head and knocked me out! Excuse me if I can't guard the van while unconscious.!" Neil yelled back.

Daryl rolled his eyes. "If you hadn't come-"

"The van would still be gone, Daryl; don't blame me for it."

"Why don't you two calm down?" Rick said.

"Fuck you!" Both Neil and Daryl shouted. Neil glared at Daryl for a moment, then turned away.

"So, I guess we're walking back to camp." T-Dog said.

"We better," Rick said. "Whoever took the van headed towards our camp, and we don't have time to be looking for a car."

"Well let's go then." Glenn said taking the lead, the other men followed, except Daryl who looked at Neil for a moment.

"What?" Neil said angrily. "Wanna yell at me some more?Go ahead Dixon, I almost died today, it's not getting much worse."

Daryl just scoffed and walked off. "Should've kept your ass at the camp then."

Maybe Daryl was right, he probably would've been better off staying at camp. Too bad when they got back to camp Daryl was proved wrong.


End file.
